


1000 Years a Crystal Gem

by KeiranGold



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Awkward Lesbian Space Rocks, Gen, Have mercy on my soul :'D, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mild Language, Multi, My First Work in This Fandom, Non-Graphic Violence, Original Character Death(s), POV Original Character, Pre-Canon, Series Spoilers, Some Humor, There's a lot of time to cover, Time Skips, expect some leaping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-14 10:26:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4561062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeiranGold/pseuds/KeiranGold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Turquoise is a working gem on Homeworld before Rose Quartz defected.  She is being sent to Earth to work on the Kindergartens, where she is witness to the beginning of the war for Earth, the dark purposes of the Kindergartens, and Homeworld’s inevitable loss.  But when she chooses her friends' lives over Homeworld, she becomes much more involved in the war than she ever wanted to be.  What is the ultimate cost of choosing the Crystal Gems?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I am...  (Prologue)

_It was not a decision I made on impulse._

_I can’t blame anyone but myself._

_What happened here, on this little blue planet, was out of my hands.  I know that much.  The fighting, the lives lost on either side, the mistakes made...those were the choices of others.  What I’ve done was all my choice._

_I will not regret a single one of them._

_No, not even now._

* * *

 

“ ** _TURQUOISE!!_** ”

The sound of her voice jolted me back from my trance, cradling the broken green gem in my palms, and I turned around just in time to hear the familiar sound of shattering.  I tried hard not to scream--to give my location away--but it ripped past my throat as more tears ran down my cheeks.  “Du--DUMORTIERITE!!”

My hand reached out from under the thorn bush for her gem where it lay, perfectly segmented into three pieces, and dragged it into my hiding place just as a weapon crashed into the brick where my hand had been a moment ago.  I sobbed as I looked over their gems.

_Everything._

_You are everything I’m fighting for._

_You can’t leave me like this._

I held both of them to my chest, just as I heard the thorn brush above me being cleared away, revealing the harsh bright light of fires in the distance.

She stood over me, lips pulled back over her teeth in a smile, and my body froze in terror.

“...you’re...not dead?”

I didn’t think she would answer, certainly, but the laughter she made was worse than any words she could have said.  Nothing of the gem I had known was there.  The calm, calculating gem that had brought me here, who had worked with me, who had _trusted_ me...was no longer there.  There was only mad, burning hatred in her eyes and equal madness in her laugh.  From the bricks she pulled the weapon, a large, burning battle-axe, and raised it with one hand above her head.

“Traitor.”

The last thing I remember was wrapping my body around the gem fragments in my lap, screaming again in terror, begging for somebody to save me--to save _**us**_ \--anything--

 

* * *

 

_“We are the Crystal Gems.  We will protect the Earth at any cost.  Will you help us, Turquoise?”_

 

* * *

 

 

\--then blackness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( Hello~
> 
> So this is my first work for Steven Universe. And my first story here in general. So I'll be quick with my notes.   
> And they are as such:
> 
> ENJOY THE RIDE IT'S GONNA END BADLY!!
> 
> That is all. Tata~))


	2. Little Homeworld Gem

I am a firm believer that warp-pads were not made with lab materials in mind.

“Damn it, get back here,” I swore as soon as the lights lifted myself and my tray of samples up off of the ground and into the stream, immediately sending the tiny samplings of earth and water up into the air above my head.  Thankfully they were all still in their test-tubes, but I still had to reach to keep them from just drifting away from me altogether.  Even with one clasped between each finger there were a few just out of reach.  I let out a low, irritated groan, clasping the ones I’d caught in my palm.  “Fine, be that way.  You get the knives then.”

Reaching my only free hand behind my head and holding it to my neck, a pair of white metal blades unsheathed themselves from my gem.  I held one on my thumb and one between my fingers and plucked the remaining tubes from the air.

And just in time for me to remember that I was holding a tray, too, when I got on the warp-pad.

It clanged on the top of my head just as my feet touched the ground.

_Brilliant._ _**Frack**._

“Turquoise?”

I almost jumped out of my boots as I scrambled to put away my knives, pick up the metal tray, and put the samples in their right place all at the same time.  I must have done a graceful job at it because the gem standing across from me let out a small snort of amusement and approached me, one gloved hand outstretched to take the tray from where I was holding it under my chin.  “Do you need an extra set of arms, Turquoise, or is this just an off-day for you?” she spoke with an amused, musical voice, and I lowered my eyes to the tray to keep from responding while my face was so hot.  

Amber, my supervising Gem, stood about three feet taller than me with red hair and red eyes, dusty brown skin, and a warm air about her.  Literally.  She waited, patiently, until everything was in it’s correct spot and I had taken the tray back in two hands before asking, again, as she walked along besides me.  “Having a bad lab day?”

“No.  Not really,” I sighed and looked up at the much taller gem with a feeble smile, “It’s only the warp pads.  I’m not used to using them so often.”

Amber nodded and the bun kept at the nape of her neck bounced slightly,  “If you feel like you need closer living accommodations, I could ask for some space to be cleared out closer to the lab.  It wouldn’t be as comfortable, but you would be able to stay on Earth and do your research without carrying things too and from the warp site.”

I tried not to sound ungrateful for the offer.  I think it worked.  “You would do that?  For me?”

“Of course.  I want my team to do their best work,” Amber smirked in a way that made her eyes gleam, “So that we get the most recognition.”

_Ah, there’s my boss._

I chuckled and shook my head, getting hair in my eyes which I had to balance my tray on one arm to adjust, “I...I would appreciate it, ma’am.  Even if it means I’ll be staying on Earth until further notice, it will definitely make research much easier.”

“Excellent.  I’ll have one of the others clear a space near the labs for you.  Work hard, Turquoise.”

With that, she turned a corner into the shadows and was simply gone.  I didn't even have time to wave.  Not that I had the hands to, anyway.

Alone, I remembered how much I disliked the Kindergartens.  Tall, looming cliffs made of dark dirt and darker stone stared down at me as I made my way through several different caverns.  Only the faint mechanical whirring sounds of injectors gave me a clue as to where the other working gems were.  I wouldn’t mind working with them, but as it were, I had a different task for today.  I stopped once I’d reached my destination--a strange looking hole in the side of the mountain, just big enough, perhaps, for a gem--and placed my tray on the ground next to it.

“You’re a new one,” I spoke quietly, peeking around the hole.  It was shallow enough for me to see the back of it and, at the back, I found the problem.

A collection of gem shards.

I clicked my tongue a few times and took out an empty tube, reached around for a pair of knives again, and begun picking up the shards with great care and delicacy to put them inside.  One they were all in the tube I labeled it:

_Day 27 in the Kindergartens, attempt number 335 is a failure.  Inspect gem shard structure._

I paused, then looked up at the gray, cloudy skies and sighed.

_Day one on Earth, Turquoise fails to say what's actually on her mind and is to stay here until further notice._

_Fuck._

 

* * *

 

Let’s begin by saying that I believe Earth is like every other Homeworld colony:  it’s very very far away and better off without me on it.  I was made on Homeworld and **_happy_ ** on Homeworld where I worked as a part of the Blue Diamond faction, testing and researching new means of gem strength, ability, fusion capabilities, and healing.  Healing, above all else, was what drove me to become a researcher.  For the most part a Gem is an incredibly vulnerable and weak creature, but only in one spot.  If we were capable of healing fractured and cracked Gems without the help of somebody's powers, then this weakness would be a minor inconvenience as most.  I was not the only one who felt this way, of course.  I just happened to be the least uncomfortable in my faction with handling the, well, shards of our fallen brethren.

Is that weird?  It is probably a little weird.

I was selected, probably for this reason, to take part in the latest in Homeworld colonization attempt on a little blue planet called Earth.  With so much water I was curious to find out just where the colonies would exist, but my curiosity ended there.  The Kindergartens--quite literally a garden of children--were placed in the mountains far away from the water, as were the launch sites where I had to commute to from the Homeworld every day.  I never saw these so-called oceans, only mountains.

Within these mountains, though, were the true gifts of this planet.  Their soil and stone were rich with energy and minerals that are perfect for sustaining new gems.  I would be following under a leading Yellow Diamond faction scientist by the name of Amber, and her team would be taking residence in a Kindergarten designed to create new researcher gems.  New **_life_**.

Pardon me if I was more excited by the job description than the location.

But as with every scientific advancement, there are flaws.  Occasionally the machines that were built to begin the gem creation would fall on somebody, or a half-matured gem would shatter just from being placed in the wrong spot where it didn’t receive the proper nutrients.  Handling these broken gems and discovering how to prevent future screw-ups became my proper position in the Kindergartens.  Again, maybe I’m weird for not thinking that picking up shattered remains of unborn gems is disgusting or unnerving.  Amber herself doesn’t seem to mind, either.  

Scientific resolve.  Let’s call it that.

I’m sure that eventually we will produce a perfect researcher gem, one that will bloom beautifully in their field and thank us for bringing them into being.  I wait, anxiously, for that day.

And I continue to wait, more and more anxiously, with every passing failure.

 

* * *

 

The room for me next to the lab was not Homeworld, but it would do.  I set down my tray on a metal table then settled onto a comfortable chair where I began my work.  The earth samples I had collected and brought back to and back from Homeworld had already been tested, but they had also been treated with certain elements from the Homeworld to give them a little extra strength.  I placed a little shard of the broken gem into each tube, packing them tight, and left some to heat and some to cool and some to remain a neutral.

If my calculations brought something to light about, well, anything, then I would give them to Amber so they could use them in the next round of injecting attempts.

It did mean, however, that I had to play the waiting game for a while.

I removed the white labcoat from my shoulders and draped it over a bench, taking the chance to stretch my arms and legs after kneeling in the rocks.  There were the occasional sounds of tinkering metal and glass through the thin wall that now separated my room from the lab, and they were a calming distraction from the otherwise dead silence.

I missed Homeworld already.

 _I haven’t even spent a night here and I’m already regretting saying I could stay,_  I sat on the bench on top of my coat and sighed, resting my chin in my palms,   _Maybe if I ask Amber, she’ll understand and let me continue to commute from Homeworld rather than stick around.  But...she was right.  We need more people here and focusing all hours of the day to make this work.  And I really do want this to work.  Damn it._

I closed my eyes for a moment and listened.  Listening helps calm me down.

Except when I hear something I wasn't supposed to.

 

* * *

 

_What was that?_

My eyes opened and I stood up swiftly, my coat in one hand as I moved through my room to the doorway.  The lab was still clinking and clanking away, but there was another sound I could have sworn I heard not coming from inside the lab.

_A voice?_

I opened the door and froze, suddenly, in my tracks.

Peering into the lab with her hand to her mouth, unaware perhaps that there was a door right next to where she stood, was a Pearl.  Taller than I was an thin as could be, she was dressed in a full blue outfit with a ribbon around her waist.  I couldn't see the color of the diamond on her chest.  She was staring inside the lab with the widest eyes I’d ever seen, something close to fear in them from whatever she was seeing.  I knew what was in those labs, though.  Tests on the earth’s soil, gem growth, and other things like that.  

At least that’s how I’d left it yesterday.  But this Pearl looked like she was seeing something horrible.  Something petrifying.

“...exc--”

I barely managed a word before she looked up, saw me, and lunged back with a spear suddenly in hand.  It was an elegant weapon like I would expect of a Pearl, but no matter how pretty a weapon is it’s still a shock to have it suddenly pointed at you.  I gaped at her for a moment with my back pressed against the doorframe of my room, staring at her staring at me.

We stood there a solid minute, not moving, just staring.

Then she lowered her spear, dread replacing anger in her eyes, and she turned to run away.  I reached out a hand to stop her, but I couldn’t find myself able to speak.  I was stunned.

_Why was she here?  A Pearl on its own?  Where is her-- **who** is her leader?_

_What was she looking at?_

_Why did she look so horrified?_

_Why..._

“Turquoise?”

I lowered my arm suddenly as Amber stepped out from the lab, looking funnily at me.  She had her arms crossed over her chest, blocking me from seeing into the lab in the moments before the doors closed behind her.  “Are you sure you’re alright today, Turquoise?  I keep catching you in strange positions today.  Do you have any cracks?”  she was joking, of course, but her smile didn't seem as playful as it had been earlier.  There was some real concern there.

_Great, I'm making my boss worry about me._

“I’m--I’m fine, ma’am.  I thought...”

My words caught on my teeth and, in a moment, I swallowed them.

“I think the door is stuck.”

Amber blinked twice at me before her head tilted back, letting a peal of laughter out before she knocked her knuckles against the lab door.  “They are **locked** , Turquoise.  It’s locked for everyone except for me right now.  I was given something to look at from my superiors, so for now use the supplies in your room until my tests are finished.  I’ll let you know when the lab is open again.”

_If the door was locked, how did the Pearl--_

I nodded, and turned, quietly, into my room and closed the door behind me.  I stood there, staring at my table across the room, as my head spun with questions.

 _That Pearl.  Why didn’t I report her behavior?_ _It just...startled me too much.  I couldn’t think straight at all._

_I’ll report it to Amber tomorrow._

_...but..._

I swallowed and peeked out of my door, catching just the tail-end of Amber as she vanished from my sight again.

_...what did she **see**?  
_

 

 


	3. Blue Gem

I’m still not entirely sure what came over me.  Was it fear?  Was I afraid that Amber would reprimand me for letting the Pearl go?  If so, I could have stopped her through force as soon as her back was turned--I’m good at throwing my knives, better than I am at using them in any sort of close-range combat--but I didn’t.  I simply let her go, and didn’t mention it for the next two-hundred years.

Two-hundred years may not have seemed like much to me before now, but I find it to be a much longer span of time when we are at war.

They are calling it the defection of the millenia.  A black stain on our proud Gem history.

Rose Quartz and her rebellion, fighting a war for Earth.

Against Homeworld.

Why did I have to be in the middle of it?

And...why did I feel like I could have done something to prevent it?

* * *

There was another distant sound of shouting in the Kindergarten as I walked to the lab, shoulders bearing the weight of a large tube of earth I had removed from the mountain.  Amber must have been fighting with her superiors again, or at least she was being told, loudly, what her new orders were.  It was happening on a much more regular basis now.  There had been rebellions before, of course.  Some colonized planets had lifeforms of their own and didn’t want Gems to stay there.  They were small and short wars, either because Gems removed the problem or deemed the world too unstable for other reasons and withdrew.  But...Rose Quartz was another matter entirely.  She had turned Earth into a battleground and would not budge an inch.  Homeworld had no choice but to battle.

And here we were, the Kindergartens, in some strange limbo between both sides.  Still taking direct order from Homeworld, but far more vulnerable to attack than they were.

I tried to ignore the thick feeling of dread in my throat every time I saw a shadow somewhere.

In my room I set the long tube of earth down on my white metal table.  The whole thing took up the entire table and then some, but it didn’t roll off.  I would prefer the longer tables in the lab but Amber had taken that space up all for herself.  Secret jobs from higher-ups.

I couldn’t question it.

Still, war and terror and fear and all those lovely things were just a backdrop for me.  I had to stay focused on research now more than ever.  Creating new Gems meant having more on our side--more researchers, more mechanics, more minds--all of which were invaluable for my true goal.  If we could find a way to cure cracks in Gems then we could fight Rose Quartzs’ biggest advantage and--

I stopped in my work, one knife embedded in the tube of soil.

_...no, this work isn’t to help in the war...it was to make life better for Gemkind as a whole._

Suddenly, I felt very ill.

_I am not making a weapon.  I’m finding a way to help._

_A way to help our side win?_

“Oh, for the love of--”  I muttered a set of swears under my breath and let my knives vanish in a flash of light, dropping myself onto the bench and kicking, angrily, at the leg of my desk.  The soil on it wobbled and swayed but didn’t fall.  Not that I think I cared much at the moment.

_I am not a cog in a war-machine!  I am a researcher--a scientist, dammit!  If I start thinking like that, I’m going to be in just as deep as Amber is._

_...poor Amber,_ my anger suddenly cooled, and I rested both hands on the edge of the desk.

She had tried so hard to keep everything the same, but had failed.  Her passion, her goal of creating more researchers for Homeworld and Gemkind, had been shattered by this war.  The change had been sudden and harsh--less funding from Homeworld and less researchers one day, then the next soldiers were filling up Kindergartens across the world, using them as bases to plan their next attack.   While we were currently one of the few Kindergartens not being used by warriors, Amber was only able to do jobs given to her by her bosses rather than continuing her dream.  I was just unimportant enough to get under the radar when I was done with work for the day, but Amber?  No such luck.

She had tried, valiantly, to hang on.  But I had not seen her smiling and joking or humming in almost a century.  It made the war feel that much colder.

With an angry sigh I turned and lay back on the bench so I was glaring at the earthen ceiling.  I wanted to close my eyes and go into my Gem and not come out until everything was back to normal.  If it were possible to just not be here for...for even a couple of hours, such a small period of time, then I could pretend that none of this was happening.  It could be like it was before.  Just research and plans and respected colleagues and pleasant days.

“...it will go back to that,” I whispered, hopefully, “Right?”

The loud thumping at my door wasn’t the most grateful answer, but I appreciated the effort. 

* * *

“Turquoise, open up,"  Amber’s voice was cold and hard and several worlds away.  I immediately knew something very, very bad had happened.  Or was in the process of happening.  I stood up and adjusted myself to look less irritable and exhausted and opened the door, looking up at her with my best polite smile of “ _I am your underling_ ” that I could muster.

“Yes, ma’am?”

Amber stared me down with a blank expression for a moment before it melted away, showing her wear.  She sighed, “At ease, Turquoise.  I’m not a general.  Don’t look at me like one.”

I hadn’t realized how tense my back was until she said that.

_Good grief, we’ both look like hell._

“S-Sorry.”

She shook her head.  “It’s...never mind.  I have a special assignment for you.  It has to remain an absolute secret from the rest of the Kindergarten.  I’m giving this to you because I,” there was a word that hung in the air, heavy like stone, before she retracted it, “Because I believe you are capable of handling it.  I have to return to my work.  So this is your responsibility.”  With that she pulled her hand from her pocket and produced a small blue stone, much smaller in her hand then it would be in mine.

I tilted myself forward in curiosity.

“A Sapphire?”

“Yes.  They are a member of Rose Quartzs’ rebels.”

I couldn’t have leaned away fast enough.

“A--a rebel?!” my voice sounded higher than I meant it to be, but I didn’t have the ability to tone it down.  Amber did it for me by shoving the Gem into my hand and pushing me back into my room, herself moving in with me, and slamming the door behind us.  For a moment it was dead silent between us, tension thick and full of panic on my end.  

Amber growled, quietly, before putting space between us again.

“Yes, a rebel Gem.  Before they come to, you are to find a means of restraining their Gem to inhibit their regeneration ability.  Keep them quiet until we have prepared a proper means of extracting information from them.  Simply put,”  Amber pressed her fingertips together and steepled them, “You are acting as their bailiff.”

I felt sick again, but I was frozen in place, unsure if I should be staring at Amber or the Sapphire or my feet or anywhere else my eyes could land.  I swallowed.  “Until they can be moved, yes?”

Amber nodded.  “It will be a short period of time.  When we’re ready, we’ll take them from your custody.  All you have to do is keep them from coming out of their Gem until that time.  Do you understand?”  I was silent for too long, I suppose, because Amber added, “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.  I just believed you would be the best fitted for this assignment.  You’re one of the best Gems we have on staff.  Will you do this?”

_Well, that was a very tactically placed compliment._

I didn’t look up from the Gem this time, but I nodded.  “Yes.  Yes ma’am.”

Even without looking I could somehow tell that, despite with my positive response, Amber still wasn’t smiling.  She just relaxed a little more like some air had slipped out of her and turned around for the door.  “Good, good.  I’ll check up on you in a week or two.  Good luck, Turquoise.”

* * *

As soon as the door was closed behind her, I dug my fingers into my wrist, my other hand wrapped around the tiny Sapphire with the most care I could muster.  I was a proper scientist and a proper Gem, I would not shatter another Gem in frustration--and certainly not on purpose.  I was not a murderer.  I was a healer.  I was not a bailiff.  I was a creator of Gem life.  I was not a solider.  

_I am **not** a solider._

“...I’m a scientist, dammit...”  I whispered, hoarse and bitterly, to the empty room.  I had never felt tears like the ones coming down my cheeks before.  They were hot and large like drops of rain and they burned my eyes like fire.  I had never been so angry and so used in my entire life.

_I’m a cog in a war-machine.  Just another tool.  Insignificant enough to be out of the loop but useful enough to keep here doing their work._

I had enough of a mind to put the Sapphire on the bench before I reached for my neck, pulling two knives for each hand from my Gem and storming over to the tube of soil on my desk.

_Pointless.  My reason for being here pointless!_

The knives slashed into the soil with speed and precision and accuracy of any proper tool, but no proper researcher should be dissecting their subject in this way.  I placed my knifes at my knuckles like claws and punched into the dirt repeatedly, leaving deep stabbing gashes where they were.  I kicked into it and left several bootprints in the concentrated mud.  Chunks and flecks of useless, meaningless, abandoned research started hitting the ground and walls and covering me in mud and dirt.

_I want--_

_I want to go home._

_But Homeworld is in this war, too.  It’s far away, but it keeps sending more here._

_They’d never let me go back to just...run._

_I’m trapped in this hellhole until it’s over?!_

With one last scream of nonsensical, angry noises I kicked the desk itself, knocking the tube--really, more of a pile now--of dirt to the ground with a resounding metal crash.  I breathed harder than I think I ever had before, slowly coming to my senses.  My knives vanished from my hands and I listened, carefully, to hear if footsteps were echoing down the hall.  Nothing.  I breathed a sigh of relief and shed my coat and started to pick my room back up.

_What the hell are you doing, Turquoise?  Are you so angry that you’d destroy valuable materials in a fit of rage?  This...can’t be the end of the world.  Not literally.  Just figure out what to do with the Sapphire, wait, and maybe...maybe things will return to normal._

I looked at my hands, stained with soil, and contemplated.  Methods of containment weren’t too hard.  Not compared to creating an entirely new Gem, certainly.  The Sapphire was small enough that it could probably fit in a little metal box and be contained until the deadline with no problems.

Then something in me itched.  My hands closed into fists and rested in my lap, and my eyes landed on the Sapphire seated on the bench.

_Or._

A familiar curiosity made me shiver.

**_Or_ ** _I can wait._

_I know nothing about this war.  Not the goals, not the methods, not the people.  Not the reason.  This Gem is one of Rose Quartzs’ own.  If...if that Sapphire comes to, I can ask them anything.  I can get information.  I’m a scientist.  I am a thinker.  I need to use my mind.  I can use information they give me, and I can learn more about what Amber won’t tell me.  I’ll know.  And when I know...then..._

_Then..._

I stood up, trembling, and stood over the Sapphire.  Staring at it.  Waiting.  Maybe even hoping.

_...then I can make my own decisions about this war._

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Woo, chapter 2! Or, well, 3, technically. But the first one was a prologue.
> 
> THE WAR HAS BEGUN! And the first time skip! There won't be another of that size for a while, but we have 1000 years of war to cover, so there will be a couple more down the line.
> 
> Til then, let's get some canon characters in and wait for the fireworks to start.
> 
> See you in a few days~))


	4. Sister Gems

The Sapphire came out on the sixth day.  To my surprise, I was able to keep up the facade of being her bailiff that entire time.  Maybe I am better at lying than I thought I was--not that I had ever had much reason to practice--or maybe Amber was just too invested in her work to notice.  I did feel bad about going around her orders.  She had put this task on me not out of malice or bitterness, but trust.  Trust which I was secretly abusing.  Was I any better than the rebels?   _Yes.  Yes, of course I am._

There’s a huge difference between being at war with your own people and keeping secrets.  I think.

But, as I was saying...Sapphire.

She was surprisingly calm for a Gem behind enemy lines.  As soon as the light around her dissipated, she was left sitting, comfortably, on my desk where I had left her while trying rest on my bench.  I was half in a daze when I noticed that-- _holy crap get up_ \--there was indeed somebody there.  She had skin like mine and hair a lighter shade, but to my surprise, we looked similar.

I began to sit up when she spoke.

“You’re going to fall if you do that.  Please, don’t panic,” she didn’t smile when she spoke, and yet her voice sounded amused.  I couldn’t see where she was looking with her bangs shrouding her eyes like that.  Was she looking at me?  Taking me in?

Was she thinking “Gee, they stuck me in a room with one whimpy Gem, time to kick her ass and break out of here”, or something else along those lines?

_I...should probably try to talk to her.  That was the whole reason I did this, right?_

I sat up a little slower, my labcoat falling to the floor from where I’d laid it under my head.  I coughed, adjusted my collar, swallowed, and then cleared my throat.  I’m not that bad at talking to others, but it’s not every day you speak with a known enemy.   _Wait, is she my enemy?  I’m not really a neutral party here, I guess, but..._  

We sat there in silence for a while before, after one more cough, I stood up and started to approach her.

I immediately tripped on my coat.

“I warned you,” Sapphire spoke, showing a lot of restraint for not laughing at me from where I was face-down in the dirt.  Purple spreading across my face I started to stand, shaking off bits of pebbles and dirt, only to find her standing--no, hovering--over me when I looked up.  I blinked as I realized she was holding her hand out to me.  Her gem, triangle faceted and much more alive than it had been by itself, was resting right in her palm.  I took it and let her help me up.  “You are not what I expected.”

“That’s...what I was about to say,” I cleared my throat, again, then released her hand once I was on my feet, “I was expecting, well, a warrior.  You’re so...so...”

“Small?”

**_Teensey._ **

“I was going to say petite, but that works, too.”

Sapphire’s lips curled into a smirk, or at least I think it was a smirk, and she hovered back onto my desk where she sat with her skirts piled around her.  She really was tiny.  Shorter than me, at least, and I wasn’t exactly known for being the “big Gem” around here.  “I was expecting a guardsman.  Something to keep me inside.  But here I am, and you aren’t holding any weapons to my throat.  Tell me, did you break me out?  Or is this...” her head continued to stare straight ahead, but I felt like she was looking around the room with her unseen eyes, “...place very understaffed at the moment?”

“Erm...a little of both,” I approached the desk cautiously.  Even with her sitting on it, she was only my height.  It’s actually kind of...cute?  “I’m a researcher here.  On Gem life and Gem creation and rehabilitation.  I was supposed to keep you from coming out, but...”  I debated on my word choice, but before I even thought of the right phrase--

“You wanted to know more about the war, so you allowed me to form so you could ask me questions,” Sapphire interrupted.  

I stumbled on my words,  “Well, um, yeah.  Yes.  Actually.”

_Wait._

“...you’ve been guessing a lot of things about me correctly,” I finished, eying Sapphire with both confusion and curiosity.  I couldn’t help it.  If I was right, this was a very interesting find.

Sapphire nodded.  “Yes.  Because I can foresee it.”

I whistled, undeniably impressed.  Even among some of the strongest Gems, the gift of future vision is rare, and incredibly useful.  Sure it was dangerous as any proper weapon or ability was, but the fact that this little Gem had it meant that she was far from defenseless.  She was a valuable asset as well as important.  But something didn’t sit quite right with that.  I furrowed my brow.

“And yet you still got captured?”

Not that I expected to catch her off-guard, but all Sapphire did in response to that question was smirk again.   _I'm not going to get an answer to that question, am I?  Doesn’t look like it._

I raised my hands and shrugged my shoulders.  “Okay, so you’re Sapphire and you...are a rebel of Rose Quartzs’ army.  You’ve got future sight.  You’re also pretty calm about being behind enemy lines.  I’ve got questions for you, and I’d like you to answer them.  If you don’t...”

That turned Sapphire’s head toward me, all traces of amusement gone from her face,  “If I don’t, you’ll what?  Alert your supervisor?  You said yourself, you are going against orders to speak to me.  Your best option to avoid them knowing you went around their orders would be to subdue me and have me return to my Gem, but you aren’t even sure of what I’m capable of.  You are not a warrior.  You’re a researcher.  I, however, am a rebel.  I could easily be better at fighting than you.  So what, pray tell,” she flattened her palms into the layers of her dress, “Would you do to me?”

_Well, shit._

I was dead silent, as was the rest of the room, for a good while.  Then I straightened my spine, looked Sapphire straight in the bangs, and said,

“I will get dirt on your dress.”

There was a pause.  Sapphire didn’t seem to react at all.  I held my ground.

“...you’ll what?”

“Get dirt on your dress.  It’s a very pretty dress.  I would get dirt on it.  Maybe even mud.  Wouldn’t that be horrible?  So y-you,” I bit my tongue, “You better answer my questions!  Or you risk the horrible fate of filthy clothes!”

There was a longer pause.

Sapphire made a noise somewhere between a snort and a gasp, her hands both covering her mouth as she turned, sharply, away from me.  Her shaking shoulders and muffled laughter made me, despite my best efforts, break into a smile.  It wasn’t really because I’d made her laugh, per say, but just hearing somebody laugh felt so good.  It had been far, far too long since I heard it.

She continued to make small, strangled giggling noises while pulling herself together, “I...did not see _that_ coming.  You’re interesting.”

“No, I’m Turquoise.”

“Turquoise,”  Sapphire nodded, giving me a small little smile, “Fine.  I’ll answer your questions.  But only on one condition.”

I nodded, crossing my arms over each other, “What’s that?”

Her smile thinned to a line, shoulders sagging slightly as if a weight had appeared on them.  Sapphire looked down at the floor, then, with a sigh, finally spoke.  “I was captured on purpose.  The Rose Quartz faction is aiming to bring this Kindergarten down.  I was meant to scout and return, but now that I’m here, I feel like I have more opportunities now than we would later.  Turquoise...”  she raised her head, and I saw a glimpse of one blue eyes staring at me with determination,  “Help me bring down this Kindergarten from the inside.” 

* * *

I said no.

Flatly, professionally, and without any flourish or stalling.  It just slipped out of my mouth like an earthworm after the rain falls on the soil.  And it lay there, flopping awkwardly, for a solid minute.  Sapphire continued to stare at me.  She had heard me, but had not changed in her posture or her gaze.  I wound up breaking the staring contest and let my arms rest at my sides.

“...you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you.”

Sapphire nodded.  “Yes.  I wanted you to know my terms.  It will save you a lot of trouble later,” she sat up and faced straight ahead once more, “However, you will change your mind.”

That irked me.

“I’m not a traitor.  I wanted information,” my fingers clenched into fists, “To better my own understanding of the war, not to hurt my fellow Gem.  I will not help to take apart something that’s...that’s trying to bring about a new generation of Gems, and expand our knowledge of our people.”  Again, Sapphire nodded.  The realization that she must have seen me saying all of this already made me angrier and angrier, and my fists began to shake.  “You don’t care about that, though.  You would destroy this place and all the work I’ve--we’ve--done to help Gemkind.  That’s...that’s more than enough information for me.  So you can keep your offer.  Leave, if you want,”

I turned sharply on my heel, abandoning my still discarded coat, and stomped towards the door.  Sapphire made no move to stop me, her body still and calm as ice.  I turned to glare at her through the doorway once I’d stepped through it,

“But leave me and my work out of this pathetic war!”

I slammed the door behind me. 

* * *

_...man, I am a fucking idiot._

I wound up outside after storming through the hall, and on a rainy day no less.  It echoed through the empty valleys and up the clean-cut sides of the mountain like a thousand little drums and I stood there, looking up at the gray clouds, scowling at them.

_I...put my own feelings on the Kindergarten in front of any actual reason she might have for destroying it.  Why?  Because it’s where we’re trying to find new things for Gemkind?  That’s..._

A raindrop fell squarely on the tip of my nose and I sneezed.

_...that’s not what they’re being used for anymore, and I know it.  The Kindergartens haven’t produced a living Gem in decades.  And those that did come out were sent home.  We didn’t have anything to research before the war, and now we have even more nothing to research.  Honestly, what would I suffer if this place fell to the ground?_

Another raindrop took advantage of my bare neck and landed right on my hairline, sending a shiver down my spine.  I raised a hand to rub it with my head still lowered.

_Amber would be heartbroken.  Or...would she, really?  If this place fell, she could return home to do research properly, rather than clinging to the thought that this war will end in Earth’s lifetime and give her another chance.  She could go home.  I could go home._

_...or...no, no, I wouldn’t be able to.  If I brought this place down, I’d be a traitor._

I could never go home.

_...in the end, did I only turn her down because I’m a coward?_

Another raindrop hit my cheek.

And I stopped thinking for a moment.

_...I'm not standing **in** the rain right now._

I raised my head up sharply, looking toward the sky, and realized something.  I had been under a cliff this whole time.  I shouldn’t have been getting hit with raindrops.  And certainly not rain from that angle.  Where was it hitting me from?  Was somebody splashing me?  There shouldn’t have been anybody else outside at this late hour.

I heard a bright, airy laugh from the mountain behind me and looked.  There, with each of their legs hanging from out of two Gem-shaped holes in the flat mountain side, one with their hands cupped and filled with water and the other with their fingertips over the lips, were a pair of Gems.  The one with their hands cupped was tall and lanky, pale with green hair.  A green prism lay rested on her chest.  The other, who had laughed, had long black hair in a mess around her short, round, purple body, and I couldn’t see a Gem on her.  It may have been on her back.

My eyes widened.

_Are they--_

The green Gem threw her handful of water at me, and it hit square in the face.  I sputtered and shook to get the water off while they laughed together.  Finally I wiped my eyes dry and resumed my surprised staring at the pair as they continued giggling.  I saw the purple Gem’s gem on the small of her back when she turned towards her companion and splashed them, too, with the rain.  It was a deep-blue square that shined, beautifully, against her dark skin.

I didn’t recognize **either** of these Gems.  I felt a sudden warm feeling in my chest.

_We did it.  We made them!_

_We made new Gems!_

“Excuse me!!”  I called up to them, and the purple one froze in what I could only read as a nervous panic.  The lanky pale one, however, looked down at me and grinned.  I noticed her hair was only in the center of her head.  A...mohawk, I think they were called.  “What are your names?!”

“Fluorite!”  the pale one shouted back down, thumbing at her chest proudly.  She then reached across the thin gap of stone between her cave and the other Gem’s and thumped them on the back, momentarily de-stunning them, “Dumortierite!”

_Oh, bless them, they only know how to say their names.  They’re so little!  Sort of.  I think Fluorite’s taller than me._

“Come down here, I’d love to meet you!”  I moved my hands in a hopping motion, sort of, a smile burning a million suns an hour on my face.  I couldn’t help it.  Real, true Earth-made Gems!  There was so much to do, so much to teach them!  And there were two of them!  I waited patiently as Fluorite nodded in understanding and pointed for Dumortierite to follow them, which they did, albeit with a bit more hesitation.  The pair of them climbed down the rock--well, actually, Fluorite **_lept_** \--and once they were on the ground I ran up to meet them, rain be damned.

“Fluorite and Dumortierite,” I spoke eagerly, and they both nodded, “My name is Turquoise.  You’re--you are creatures known as Gems, and you were born here on Earth by me!  Well, me and my team, but...I guess that makes you a part of our team now, too!”  Fluorite beamed brighter at that, though Dumortierite only nodded and glanced up nervously at Fluorite--they were, indeed, taller than me, but Dumortierite looked to be about Sapphire’s height...

_...no, no, don’t think about her right now._

“I’ll take you back to the lab and we can get you fitted in some proper clothes, and I can start teaching you about what you can do, and finding out what you’re capable of, and--”

Suddenly, a voice interrupted me.

“Stand down, Turquoise.”

I stood up straighter and looked over my shoulder.  Amber stood there, rain falling on their shoulders and evaporating almost instantly into steam, with their arms crossed firmly over their chest.  Their eyes weren’t on me, but on the two new Earth-Gems.  I turned around with my arms outstretched, still not quite able to hide my excitement.

“Amber, look at them!  Aren’t they beautiful?  I’ve never seen a Gem like this!  We need to get them to the lab and start teaching them!  Who knows what they’re capable of.”

“Turquoise,”  Amber growled, and her eyes narrowed,  “ ** _Shut up._** ”

My smile fell.

_What?_

Amber stepped around me, shoving me back from the two young Gems, and I saw confusion and fear in both of their faces.  Dumortierite even hid behind Fluorite’s arm.  Amber watched them for a few unbearably still moments before, with both hands--

“What are you **_doing_** _?!_ ”  I let out a scream.

\--she had both of them by the throat, holding them each off of the ground as they struggled and kicked and let out choking screams.  Fluorite tried to claw for the Gem on her chest--for her weapon, on instinct--while Dumortierite only let out sobs of strangled terror.  Before even a minute had passed, Amber’s fists had tightened too much and, with a sharp, painful noise, they both vanished.

I was too frozen in fear to catch their Gems before Amber did.

Amber, then, turned and approached me, holding both Gems in one palm, and grabbed my wrists with the other, forcing them into my hands.

“Take these to the lab.  The green one has promise.  Test the strength of their Gem and then their weapon, then send her to the warp zone to be assigned.  The blue one is weak.  Dispose of it.”

Without another word, and without looking me in the eye, Amber left as swiftly as she’d come.

I stood there, in the rain, holding the two Gems to my chest.

_...why?  What?  Why would she do that?  Why would she hurt them?  For what reason?  To test them?  That was horrific.  Terrifying.  They’re...they’re only just made, they’re fresh and new to this world.  And their first experience was that?  That amount of pain?_

_And now I’m supposed to prepare Fluorite for even more of that?  More pain?  All they’ll know is fighting?  War?  Battles?  Is that all they’re here for?  All they’re wanted for?_

_And...and...and the other...?  Dumortierite?_

_I’m just to...destroy them?_

_Is...i_ _s that it?_

_Is this what I’m working for...?_

* * *

Without my realizing it, my legs had taken me back to my room, rather than the lab.  Still with Fluorite and Dumortierite in my hands, I came inside.  Not to my surprise, Sapphire was still there, my folded labcoat besides her on the bench.  She was already looking at me when I walked in.

“Turquoise...” she began, and I could hear a tone of melancholy in her voice.

I shook my head, and she went quiet.  I approached her and set the two Gems on my coat.  Then, slicking my hair back from my face with the rain, I nodded to her.

“Sapphire....”  I smiled, painfully, and clenched my hands together, “...I want to help.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((I caved and put up another chapter today instead of tomorrow. Oh well.
> 
> The fun begins~))


	5. Flying Gem

For all the work put into them, for all the time and research and struggle, the injectors went down with very little effort.  It probably helped that I had worked with them for the better part of two centuries, but I was still a little surprised just how weak the legs of them were, even against such small and usually ineffective weapons like my knives.  Maybe if they hadn’t been left in the rain so often they would have been a bit harder to best.  But, alas, there were more important things on the boss’ minds than protecting the machines.

 _I have never been so grateful for the negligence of the Kindergartens before,_ I found myself thinking as I watched, from a safe distance, as the third injector of this evening fell with a ringing crash of metal on rock below us.  Sapphire was floating a foot or so above where I was hiding in one of the empty holes in the mountain side.  She was calm and cool as she had been every night since we began our secret operations.  I don’t know how she did it--I still shook like hell every time I heard a pebble move too close to me--but it was oddly helpful that at least one of us wasn’t a nervous wreck.  Funny how that was.

“How many will come for this one?”  I looked up at Sapphire, “How long do we have?”

She was quiet for a time, then nodded, “Five guards will come to this one, sent from the scene over that hill.  Your supervisor will join them now...” I made an audible, terrified noise, and she turned her head towards me, “We may retire for the evening, if you believe it best.  We’ve done well tonight.”

I bit my lip.  “Yeah.  Yeah, that’d be great.  I don’t want to be moving around when Amber is.”

“Do they scare you that much?”   Sapphire frowned slightly.   

I hesitated for a moment before I nodded.  I let the knives in my hands disperse before I started to scale the cliffside towards the way we’d come up, far enough away from the now destroyed injector to, hopefully, be noticed.  “She didn’t used to.  She was a fair leader and a brilliant mind.  But she’s changed since the war started,” I got quieter, “What she did to the newborn Gems was...horrible.  I would have stopped them, but she's a lot **_stronger_ ** than me.  I...”

“Why do you think that is?”

I paused on the cliffside and stared out into the open air at Sapphire, confused.  There were plenty of reasons.   _I’m about half her size, she’s much more experienced in combat than I was, she is well known and a model Homeworld Gem and would win any argument I brought to them on principle alone..._

“...I don’t really think climbing down a mountain is a good time for an introspective look at my insecurities and fears,” I arched a brow at her,  “Especially since I can’t fly.”

A small, playful smile showed on Sapphire’s face before she covered it with her hand and laughed, quietly, into it.  “You have a point.  My apologies.”

I shrugged and continued to scale.  “No need, it’s not like my fear of heights has gotten any worse since we started doing this.” 

* * *

“You’re back!”

Upon returning to my room, and locking it tight, I was greeted by utter blackness and being lifted off the floor by a pair of wiry, thin limbs.  I flailed my arms until I managed to grab Fluorite’s arms and free myself from them with a gasp.  Sapphire floated past us and back to her usual spot, seated on the desk, while I gathered myself better.

Fluorite had been the first to reform, taking what seemed similar to their original body in shape, but now with clothing.  She wore a black dress, reaching her ankles in length, with matching long gloves and a ribbon around her throat.  It was something of an odd outfit when matched with her green mohawk, but I had never been one to judge on aesthetics.

I smiled up--she was still a head taller than me--at her weakly.  “Yeah, we’re back.  Didn’t I tell you to stay hidden until you’re sure it’s us?”

Fluorite laughed and shrugged her shoulders, “You’re the only one with a key!  If it wasn’t you, they’d have to break the door down.  Then we’d know it wasn’t you!”

“And if I had lost the key and had to break it down, too?”

“...then I would have punched you.  Probably.”

 _Well, I can’t argue with that logic,_ I rolled my eyes and patted her on the shoulder, “Right.  So.  You two didn’t do anything while we were gone, did you?”

I stepped around Fluorite to find Dumortierite seated on the bench, her legs crossed over one another, in a sweater that was cropped just over her stomach and a pair of shorts.  She shook her head, blushing a shade of deep blue, before hiding her face behind her hair.  “...we stayed here...” she mumbled, “...it was quiet.”

“Yeah, except for the loud-ass crashing noises outside.  Was that three or four?”  Fluorite rested her chin right on top of my head, and I swatted lightly at her cheek until she stood up again.

Sapphire took the answer right out of my mouth.  “Three, and I believe Turquoise told you yesterday that she was not a head-rest.”

Fluorite shrugged, again, and instead strolled over to Dumortierite and laid sideways on the bench, her head resting comfortably in Dumortierite’s lap.  She didn’t seem to mind.  I grumbled quietly about the improperness of ‘Earth Gems’ before I took a seat in front of Sapphire desk.  Somehow, this had become the norm for the last couple of days.  During the day I would continue to act like a hard-working Kindergarten Gem, but come nightfall I would take Sapphire with me to bring down injectors that I can catalogued and placed strategically throughout the day.  We had to set them a fair distance apart in order to avoid being caught by any other Kindergarten workers or, worse, Amber themselves.  Sapphire’s ability to see the future came in handy when seeing when exactly Amber would make an appearance and how many guards would be around which corner.  Then, yesterday, we had come home to Fluorite awake and cradling Dumortierite’s Gem.  We had explained as much as we could as simply as we could, and when when Dumortierite had regenerated hours later we did the same for her.  The two of them had been waiting, patiently, for us every night while making sure it sounded like I was still working in my room rather than causing trouble.

“...t-Turquoise?”  Dumortierite’s quiet voice piped up in the calm stillness of the room, and it caused me to jolt slightly.

“Yeah?”

She hesitated for a moment, her hand slowly going through Fluorite’s mohawk with tender, tiny fingers, then took a deep breath and spoke again, “...we were...talking...and we wanted to h-help you tomorrow.  Together.”

I could feel my face grow colder.   “That’s--”

“A good idea,” Sapphire interjected, and I turned my head sharply to glare at her.

“--not going to happen.”

Fluorite sat up and gave me an indignant frown.  “Why the hell not?  We’re Gems, we’re here, and we can help!  You guys haven’t been able to do more than three of those things a night!  If we were there, I bet you could get more done!”

“Except that a large group would be easier to see, and a lot easier to catch,” I clenched my teeth together and stood, my right hand clamped tightly on the edge of my desk, “You’re young and inexperienced.  We don’t even know what you’re capable of using as a weapon!  It would be too dangerous to drag you into this.”

Sapphire raised her hand for silence, which I allowed her.  “But they are also Gems.  As you said, Turquoise, we do not know what they’re capable of.  It’s more than possible that they’re born with skills neither you or I possess.  Fluorite has the body of a fighter and the instincts of one, from what you have seen,” my back straightened, stiffly, at the memory of Fluorite clawing for her Gem when being strangled by Amber, “While neither of us have much experience with direct combat, she may be our best bet if we were to be caught.  Dumortierite, too, may have abilities we would need in a dangerous situation.  They may not be for fighting, but odds are she is still an important ally.”

Dumortierite stared at Sapphire with some kind of awe.

“We should allow them to join us,” Sapphire concluded, returning her hands to her lap.

I swallowed a hard lump in my throat.

“I’m...still not sure,” I admitted, meekly, and all three of them watched me--or at least I assumed on Sapphire’s part--with anticipatory eyes.  My nails clicked against the metal desk.  “Fine.  Fine.  Let’s spend tonight learning what the two of you can do.  If--IF you are equipped with something that could help us, then...then tomorrow night, you can join us.”

Fluorite practically bounded off the bench to give me another hug, and this time she lifted me right off the ground and twirled.  “ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOUTURQIOISE!!”

Dumortierite clapped her hands together, excitement glittering in her eyes.

Sapphire smiled and nodded at me when the room stopped spinning.

I, to the best of my abilities, tried not to look like I was about to dissolve from of fear.

 _They’re only children._  

* * *

Fluorite had a spear.  About four feet as longer than she was, thin, and black with a large green knife for the head.  It looked almost exactly like herself, only with a lot more pain if you were to be hit by it.  She twirled it around with ease and put a hole in my wall demonstrating how powerfully she could use it.  I hated to admit it, but it was an effectual weapon that could be used to keep the enemy back and cause damage while escaping.  

Dumortierite did not have a weapon, but a lens.  It fit over her eye and gave her a unique ability I had not seen in Gems before--she could see movement of Gems through walls, through solid objects.  Not the bodies generated by the Gems, but the Gems themselves.  It felt almost intrusive in nature, I admit, but it was something that was, again, more useful than I had expected or really wanted.  She could see through rocks and walls to make sure we weren’t walking right into an ambush.

Sapphire had smiled, knowingly, when I begrudgingly admitted we needed them.

So, the next evening, we took to the hills to begin breaking more things than usual. 

* * *

As it turns out, the Kindergarten was less understaffed than I had believe it was.

“Are...” I heard Dumortierite squeeze Fluorite’s arm tighter, a tremble in her voice, “Are those n-new guards?  I...I don’t recognize th-them...”

“Probably,” Sapphire answered very matter-of-factually, “We have spent the last five evenings destroying valuable Kindergarten equipment.  It was only a matter of time before the supervisor became suspicious and requested more guards from Homeworld.”

My body felt cold and tense as I waited with the three other Gems, hidden in a natural alcove in the mountains rather than the holes left by the injectors.  Dumortierite was staring through the far stone, where the guards were, surrounding the injector I had chosen to destroy first.  We hadn’t known until we had gotten this far that it was being watched.  Sapphire looked more uncomfortable than usual.  Something clicked.

“You didn’t see this?”  I whispered to her, eyes narrowing.  

She shook her head and her shoulders slumped slightly, “I saw multiple outcomes.  It is more difficult when there are more factors involved.  I believed it was unlikely that there would be this many guards, tonight, at this location.”

I grimaced.  “Then Amber is onto us?  More than we thought she was?”

“It’s...possible.”

Fluorite scoffed, her spear rested comfortably on her shoulder, and started walking towards the exit of the alcove.  I reached for her dress and stopped her just as she had stepped out into the night air.  Sapphire and Dumortierite watched us with surprise and dread, respectively.  “What are you doing?!” I hissed,  “We can’t go out, we have to return to my room, now.  This has gotten too dangerous!”

“I am going to do what we set out to do!”  she responded, a wide, beaming smile on her face.  I opened my mouth to protest when, faster than I had time to react to, she had grabbed my wrist, “And you know what?  I think you can help!”

And suddenly, we were in the air.

As I said before, I cannot fly.  I had known Gems capable of it, just like Sapphire, and it always seems like a lovely experience, even if I couldn’t do it myself.  For the record, what Fluorite was capable of was **_not_ ** flying.  It was jumping, really, really high up, followed by falling much, much faster.

If it weren’t for Fluorite’s hand on my mouth, I would have screamed all the way down.

We landed squarely on the top of the mountain overlooking both the alcove on one side and the injector, and the guards, on the other.  Fluorite let me collapse in a gasping, trembling heap while she knelt carefully over the edge, still grinning like a beast.  I couldn’t pull myself together fast enough to speak before she did.

“Alright.  Nobody’s looking up here.  They probably think it’s too high up.  Turquoise?  Think you can hit that--Turquoise?”  Fluorite stopped talking when she noticed I was still gasping, and promptly burst into laughter,  “Whoa, easy there!  Sorry, I didn’t know I could go that high up, but I guess I can!  I just knew how to do that!  Pretty cool, huh?”

“That.....that....that was...terrifying.  Don’t...don’t do that...again...without warning me!”

_That was **incredible**._

“Like I said,” she shrugged, still grinning, “Sorry!”

I halfheartedly whacked her over the head with my palm, only getting more giggles out of her, before she gestured for me to look over the cliff-edge with her.  That lovely feeling of being far too high up to be comfortable hit me like a physical force, but it didn’t scare me as much as it had before.  Maybe it was the lingering rush of Fluorite’s jump.

“So, like I said, nobody’s looking up here.  But even with this height, I’m sure I can hit the head of the injector and knock it off balance.  We just need to distract the guards for long enough to knock it over and, y’know, not crush anybody,” she looked at me and pointed at the back of her neck, “You’ve got knives, right?  Can you throw them?”

I pursed my lips together.  “Yeah, but...from this height, it might be easier to just drop them and hope they don’t spin.”

“Well, I was thinking you could throw them at that.”

Fluorite pointed across the clearing in the mountains where the injector was.  I followed where she was pointing and found yet another injector seated half-way up the opposite hillside, embedded into the rock.  Immediately I realized what she was implying.

“You...want me to knock that one free, so it falls towards the guards, and then they scramble to get away so you can...”

“Yep!  See, I told you if you brought us along, we’d get double the work done!”

_That wasn’t what you said, exactly, but..._

I stared across the valley at the injector, contemplating.  It wasn’t an insane idea.  It was risky, though.  If I did managed to knock it off the cliff side there was the chance it brought down rocks with it, and could hurt one of the Gems below.  If I didn’t knock it down on time and made too much noise, there was also the possibility of being seen by the guards below.  I literally had to get four--maybe only two, but to be safe I went with four--perfect hits on the injector’s legs and hope the guards moved out of the way for Fluorite to take the shot.

I felt surprisingly nervous without Sapphire saying if this plan would work or not.

“Come on, Turquoise,” Fluorite knocked my shoulder with her own, “Take a chance!”

I brought one hand up to the back of my neck, to my Gem, and felt four knives slide between my fingers with ease.  Despite my doubts, I gave Fluorite a little half-smile, which made her own light up even more.

“Alright.  Give me a bit of space, I haven’t done this in a while.”

“Hells yes!!  Fire at will, teach!”

* * *

One knife settled comfortably into the lowest leg, jutting it just slightly from its position in the rocks.  The injector gave a low sound of creaking metal, but the guards didn’t hear it as clearly as we did.  Anticipation must do something to your sense.  The second knife, however, dashed right through the knee of the highest limb and the entire injector made the sound of screeching metal moments before the remaining two legs snapped from its weight and the piece of machinery started falling at an alarming rate.  Fluorite let out a whoop of delight as the guards below noticed moments before they were in danger and they rushed out of the way, giving her the opening necessary to hurl her spear for the head of the second injector and teeter it sideways, colliding the two in the few seconds before they both tumbled to the ground in several pieces of metal and pools of red liquid.

Fluorite stood up, away from the ledge, and did a small dance.

I remained frozen at the lip of the cliff.

Below us, the guards began to reassemble around the wreckage.  Most of them seemed to be shouting, distant angry noises at each other, but one of them didn’t.  They simply removed the white cloak that had been covering their head and looked up, towards the mountain, right where we were.  Right where I was.

Even at a distance, I recognized Amber’s bright red hair and eyes.

I scrambled from the cliff's edge, grabbed Fluorite by the wrist, and began running at an almost entirely vertical back down for the base, ignoring Fluorite’s sounds of confusion behind me.

_She saw me._

_She saw me she **saw** me **she saw me**._

_She knows.  She has to._

_She had to have set this up.  Precisely._

_She’s...she’s known all along._

_She knew it was me._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((MORE CHAPTERS, MORE ACTION, MORE DRAMA!
> 
> And occasionally new Gems being silly.
> 
> See you in a couple days~))


	6. Parting Gem

“Is s-something the matter?  Turquo--”

“--what’s wrong?!  Teach, talk to--”

“--Turquoise, please, you’re scaring them.  You need to calm--”

“ ** _SHUT UP!!_** ”  I shouted, and the room fell into a stunned silence.  Fluorite and Dumortierite and Sapphire were all in front of me as I stood with my back against my door, my hands shaking and my breathing heavy.  I had run all the way back with Fluorite by the wrist and was followed quickly thereafter by Sapphire and Dumortierite.  I had barely heard them on the run back with the pounding in my ears, but as soon as I had gotten them all inside the questions had rained down hard.  But I needed silence.  I needed to think.  Quick thinking.  Planned thinking.

I drew in a breath, trembling, and tried talking without yelling this time.

“...Amber was down there.  She--she completely saw me.  I don’t know if she saw Fluorite, but...but she definitely saw me,” my nails dug into the doorway as I spoke, barely restraining my volume level, “That injector, the guards, it was all a set-up.  She had to have known we were doing this.”

Dumortierite made a soft, sobbing sound and clung to Fluorite’s arm, who was standing still as a stone.  Sapphire had a moment of contemplative silence before she sighed.

“You are positive that Amber wasn’t looking for the culprit--any culprit?  And you are absolutely sure that she had a clear view of you?”

I nodded.  Then I shook my head.  Then I buried my face in my hands and groaned, “Okay, fine, even if she didn’t set this up to catch us, specifically, she’s going to come cracking down on anyone that might have a reason for turning traitor!  If she saw me, then that’s all she needs to go for me first.  But even if she didn’t,” I raised my head, “I’m the one she gave a rebel Gem to, as well as two Earth-grown Gems.  She has to know how I...felt after seeing what she did to them.  That’s enough motive, isn’t it?!”

“You are giving this Gem a lot of credit in her ability to predict the future,”  Sapphire crossed her arms.  Her voice was even and cold, so much so that I felt that, if I breathed near to her, fog would appear.  “Turquoise, the reason she entrusted me to you, or the Earth Gems, may have been for your mind.  It may also be because she believes she doesn’t have enough trusted staff here and chose to rely on you because she believed in you.”

I flinched, slightly.

_It's true, she believed in me.  It doesn’t look like that was a good idea, does it._

“Yeah, s-so?”  I tried not to sound like a nerve had been struck.  I failed utterly.

Sapphire nodded, “So she may doubt her own eyes.  She does have proof now that somebody within the Kindergarten is tampering with the machines, but I believe the odds are in your favor.  She will likely do a personal interview with all of the Gems here, including you, in hopes that one of them confesses instead.  She trusts you--”

_Trust **ed** ,_ I wanted to interject.

“--and in the time it takes before she comes to your door, you have the opportunity to leave.”

“Leave?”  Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself all spoke at the same time, staring at Sapphire.  She uncrossed her arms and floated slowly up to me, her fingers touching at the tips.  I moved so I wasn’t leaning against the door for support and stared down at her, “...what do you mean, ‘leave’?”

“It is exactly as it sounds.  Turquoise, you and Fluorite and Dumortierite will undoubtedly be punished for helping me cause havoc here in the Kindergarten.  You have also showed your own ability to fight against Homeworld’s injustices, even if you don’t know the full story.  Yet.  There is much to it that I can’t tell you,” she lowered her head, slightly, like she was staring at her feet, “But I am positive that Rose Quartz and the others of the rebellion would be willing to have you on our side.  We could tell you everything.  You would still be a part of the war, but you would be safe from Amber with us.”

I stared at Sapphire, dumbfounded, for a solid minute of silence before she added, quietly,

“And I would not be able to handle what would happen if I left you here.  I cannot say that I’ve completely foreseen it, but if you are caught...even if you do not...” she skipped on a word, “...I do not want to learn that you were hurt because I did not convince you to go.  Please, consider leaving with me.  All of you.”

The heavy silence stayed in the air for a while longer.  Then Fluorite, having about as much precision as her spear, spoke with a bitter looking smile, her arm tight around Dumortierite’s shoulder.   “So what you’re offering is ‘ _avoid dying now to avoid dying later_ ’.  Is that right?”

I almost saw Sapphire cringe before she nodded.  “That is precisely right.”

“Well, fuck.  It sounds so tempting,” Fluorite chuckled, dryly, and looked down at Dumortierite.  I could see her eyes echoing what was much clearer on Dumortierite’s face: terror, pure and absolute terror.  “You want to risk it, Dumortierite?  Whatever you’re picking, I’m sticking with you.”

Sapphire looked over her shoulder at the pair of them, and I couldn’t see her face.

Dumortierite swallowed, trembling, and looked right at me with her large, navy blue eyes.  “If...If t-Turquoise is going, then...then I want to go.”

Just like that, Sapphire was looking back at me.

I felt my skin go cold very, very quickly.

“...thanks for the pressure, Gems,” I grumbled, entirely to myself, and did my best not to grimace,  “Give me a little time to think about it, please?  It’s...it’s not exactly an easy decision.  You guys have had two centuries to betray Homeworld, I’ve only got a few minutes,” my attempt at humor hit the floor and skidded against the rocks, “Just...I need to debate a few things.”

Sapphire stared at me--or I assumed she did--before giving me a slow nod.  Even though I had only known her for less than I week, I recognized something in her actions.  This detached calm.

_You already know my answer, don’t you?_

I didn’t have the guts to ask her. 

* * *

Hours do not usual register as a long period of time to a Gem.  We are eternal beings, so long as we keep our Gems safe and don’t royally screw up.  But the three hours I spent seated at my desk contemplating betraying my entire life up until this point were, without a doubt, the longest in my life.

On one hand, my dreams and goals.

The Kindergartens after the war had become little more than mountainous barracks for Homeworld soldiers, and those that didn’t fall into that category were condemned by Homeworld almost entirely.  They had begun forcing us--especially Amber--to use the very place where we had come to make new life, new hope, into weapons for their cause.  My dreams of finding ways to cure injured Gems had vanished, my hopes of understanding the new Earth Gems narrowed down to two young Gems who would have been used as front-line fodder, or worse, had I not intervened.  Abandoning this place was the least of my concerns, even when it also meant leaving behind what I had come here for in the first place.  I had to come to terms with it.  Things would not be going back to the way they were.

On the other, I had only known Homeworld all my life.

I had worked as a loyal scientist and researcher since I could remember.  I helped to study the abilities of my brethren, expand the knowledge of Earth before everything had come undone, and I had been absolutely loyal to the Four.  Then again, were it not for them, I would not be here now.  If it weren’t for them, I would not be standing here in the middle of a war between them, my hopes held hostage for their purposes.  This is a weaker point than I thought it would be.  But the truth still stood there, terrifying and true.   If I defected, whether to protect myself or Fluorite and Dumortierite, then I would never go home again.  Even if I had no real connections to Homeworld, or even to my fellow Homeworld Gem, I knew nothing else outside of it and this one little patch of mountains.  

I knew nothing of Earth.  I knew nothing of Rose Quartz as a Gem, or of her stake in this rebellion.  I knew the safety of a familiar planet light years away.  I wasn’t sure I was ready to sacrifice it.

_That’s what it comes right down to, isn’t it?  If I do leave, I will never seem Homeworld again, and there’s the possibility that I’ll die a traitor, regardless.  If I don’t leave...and Amber does know that I’m the traitor...then I die regardless.  But there’s a chance that I get out of this.  A sliver of a chance.  There’s also the chance that we don’t escape at all, and die here, running away, as traitors._

_So I just...am screwed every way?_

From where I sat on my comfortable chair, staring at the wall above my metal desk, I felt my shoulders shake and my throat grow thicker.

_I’m too scared to risk everything.  I’m just too scared.  I can’t...I can’t risk it.  I can’t.  Maybe I can beg to Amber.  Say I was made to do it.  I can continue to hide Dumortierite.  But what about Fluorite?_

_Am I that much of a coward?  Am I?_

_Would living be worth sacrificing Fluorite?  No.  What about throwing Sapphire and all she’s done for me under Amber’s foot?  No!_

_But...but..._

_It’s the only choice I see where I don’t die._

_...what I wouldn’t do for Sapphire’s future sight, or even a fraction of it._

I took a long, deep, shaking breath that shattered the stillness of the room.  Fluorite jumped almost right off the bench where she had been laying once again with her head in Dumortierite’s lap, who in turn gave a startled squealing sound.  Sapphire, hovering still where I had left her standing near the door, did not make a noise.

I must have been right in my previous assumption.

“I thought about it,” I said, clearly holding back a shake I didn’t want in my voice, “And I decided to stay.  If Amber does trust me enough to do as you say, then...then maybe I can beg out of any punishment she has for me.  Dumortierite,” I couldn’t look at her, “You’ll probably need to stay hidden, here, until I’ve gained back more of Amber’s trust.  Fluorite, you too, unless Amber asks for you.  Do you understand?”

I didn’t dare look at their faces, but I heard Fluorite shift and tap her fingers against the bench.  Her voice wasn’t angry or calm, just its usual tone.  “You got it, teach.”

Dumortierite mumbled, “...yes...okay...if th-that’s what you think is best.”

Finally I turned the chair around, looking at the back of Sapphire.  Her arms were limp at her side and she had still not turned to look at me the Earth Gems, but I saw little flickers of white frost underneath where she stood.  It was all the emotion I could read of her.  It was all I really needed.

“I guess this is goodbye, Sapphire.  Do you need...anything, or do you have a way out?”

She shook her head with such little movement I wasn’t sure if she really had or if there had been a breeze.  “I foresee a clear passage.  It is far easier to see when it is one person.”

I let out a frosty breath-- _Oh, I was right_ \--and nodded.

“...stay safe, alright?”  the words slipped out before I had time to think about them, and I regretted them instantly.  Was it cruel, being kind to her when I was forcing her out the door and retreating into my own safety, for entirely selfish reasons?  I don’t know how it made her feel.  It made me feel nauseous.

But I saw something change.  The frost melted at the edges, and she looked back at me.  I could see, briefly, a flash of her single eye beyond her bangs, and it was staring at me and yet staring far away.

_Did she see something?_

Sapphire said nothing before she had again turned away from me.  “Yes.”

And with that, she slipped soundlessly from my room, leaving Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself to live with the fate I had just decided for us.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Not much to say for this one. Things start picking up again next chapter.
> 
> See you in a couple days~))


	7. Broken Gem

The walk to Amber’s quarters was much shorter than I remembered it being.  I wasn’t sure if it was because the Kindergartens felt smaller of late, or because my adrenaline made me walk at a pace faster than usual.  Either way,  I found myself standing next to an elevator imbedded into the earth, staring down at the metal with fear.  The doors were closed which meant I had just enough time to stand there and pray that a loose injector would fall on me in the next few minutes.

As Sapphire had said, Amber had begun her crack-down on the Kindergarten staff as far away from me as possible.  Gems would go into her quarters and come out panicking,  muttering news of a traitor to everyone they saw, and then the next would be called in.  I was not the last one called, but I had had several hours of “suspects” before me.

_What’s worse, knowing that I’m completely guilty, or knowing that Amber is desperately trying to convince herself that I’m not?_

The elevator doors clicked, then with the sound of metal sliding against metal, they parted and revealed the platform approaching from below.  I hesitated when I saw that it was empty, rather than carrying the person who was supposed to have been before me.  Despite that confusion, I stepped onto the platform, adjusting my collar, and let it descend. 

* * *

Dumortierite had tried to stop me when I was called.  It was the first time I had seen her act even remotely assertive, and to my surprise that tiny body of hers has a surprising amount of pull when it needs to.  She almost threw me into the desk when she pulled me back into the room.

“You c-can’t go...!  You’re going to get hurt!” she spoke in a squeaky, terrified voice, with both her hands holding the front of my shirt,  “Even if sh-she doesn’t punish you, sh-she’ll take Fluorite away!  We...we c-can still run away!  Please, p-please reconsider...?”

I smiled sadly at her and tried to get a hold of her wrists before she accidentally damaged me.  “Dumortierite, you should have said something yesterday,” I tried to sound less worried than I was.  It didn’t work.  “I am going to talk to Amber.  My decision doesn’t have to be yours, though.  In that time, you and Fluorite...you can leave, if you’re careful.  I won’t judge either of you for going back on your decision.  Not at all.”

Fluorite grunted angrily, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.  “Yeah, you won’t be able to judge us one way or the other.  Because either you’ll be dead, or we’ll be out of here.”  Dumortierite sobbed, quietly, and released my shirt just before she buried her face into it.  I barely managed not to outright scowl at Fluorite and tell her how unappreciated her bluntness was before Fluorite sighed, dropping her arms to her side, and avoiding my eyes.  “Sorry.  Look.  I...I’m not leaving.  I said I was going to follow Dumortierite, and she’s not going to leave unless we don’t have a choice.  You got that?  No matter what the hell happens today, we’re here with you.  Even if you come back in a bunch of bits.”

Dumortierite let out a louder sob, and this time Fluorite flinched.

“Dumor, stop...shit, I didn’t mea--”

“Fluorite,” I interrupted her, giving Dumortierite a tight squeeze around her little shoulders, “I get it.  I do.  I really, really do.  And I am going to come back in one piece.  But even if I don’t come back, I want you to swear that you’re never going to talk without thinking ever again.  Agreed?”

Fluorite was quiet for a moment, then with a cold, bitter smile, she nodded.  “Whatever you say, teach.  Just...just come back.” 

* * *

I reached the base of the tunnel with no fanfare, only to find a crowd of Gems there waiting for me.  Amber stood there, her tall form looming more than I believe I had ever seen it do before, while several guard Gems stood in a half-circle around her.  Her usual lab coat, similar to mine, was cast aside, and she was looking down at something under her feet.  

There was no expression on her face, no anger or happiness, just stillness.  Intent.  I found myself staring at her face in silent awe before I finally lowered my gaze to what she, too, was staring at with such focus.

By the time I realized it was another Gem, there was a sharp sound of cracking in the air.

Just one **_crack_**.  

Then dead silence.

I had never, once, felt so cold or so terrified in all my existence.

Amber bent over, picking up the two even pieces of the unknown red Gem from the floor, before turning towards me with the same cold, professional stare she had worn a week ago.  Right after she had choked Fluorite and Dumortierite into submission.  Like she had not just done something so heinous.  Even some of the guards look at least a little unnerved by what they had just witness.

I wanted to run up the elevator shaft.  No, not run, I wanted to leap like Fluorite.  I wanted to fly.

Amber approached me, took my wrist firmly in mine, and then placed the halves of the gem in it.  There was no emotion I could read in her voice when she spoke, “This Gem was giving information to the rebels,” she stated, “The one we had originally caught was, in fact, here with specifics on the Kindergarten sent by them.  Undoubtedly, without your knowing, they stowed the Sapphire away and have been aiding it in the destruction of our machinery.”

I felt my insides twist and turn, like they were about to burst out of my mouth.

She continued, calmly, “Come.  Let’s go to your lab.  We will bring this, the Sapphire, and those Earth Gems to the lab.  I have an assignment for you.  An...experiment.”

“What kind of experiment?”  I blurted on auto-pilot, still staring at the two halves in my palm.

“On the way,” Amber pushed my shoulder, much lighter than she had a week ago, until we were both back on the elevator.  The guard Gems gave a quick salute before we began to ascend.

I could not think.  I could not breath. 

When we had reached the mountain where the lab, and my room, were in, I had finally found my voice again.  I stopped walking, even with Amber’s hand resting on my shoulder, and she moved in front of me by a few steps before she, too, stopped.  There was a heavy stillness between us before she turned, facing me, with what was a poor attempt at the smile she had worn before the war.

_How much has been taken from you?  You’re a scientist.  A Gem of intelligence and research, of hyperbole and hypothesis.  You were a Gem I looked up to.  You and I, I believed we were alike._

_I thought only I was in pieces over this.  Over what’s become of my dreams._

“What’s wrong, Turquoise?”  she said, quietly, with tension in her voice, “You stopped.”

_But this place was your dream.  All of it.  You wanted to see it blossom, you more than any of us._

I swallowed, my fists clenched, and stayed still.  I heard Amber taking steps back towards me before I raised my gaze to meet her face, staring up into her dull, red eyes.  “What is this experiment, ma’am.  Please,” I tried to beg, putting my fists together at my chest, “I want to help.  I do.  But I can’t shake this feeling of...of...it feels like something is wrong.”

_What have **they** turned your dreams into?_

Amber’s smile, if it could be called that, dropped off of her face.  She raised one hand to her forehead and dragged it down to her chin, taking a deep breath as she did so.

“It’s...” she spoke muffled by her hand, “It is a request from the top.  I have been told to begin tests on a new breed of...fusion.  A way to make stronger soldiers.”  Amber lowered her hand, her arms hanging limp, and she stared straight through me at the air behind me.  “I suppose the more accurate purpose for it, however, is punishment.”

_Punishment?_

_Punishment for being a rebel._

_For being a traitor._

_A fusion-based punishment?_

_How...how would that even work?  Fusion was a very delicate and strange process, even to Gemkind.  It’s also incredibly intimate.  Sharing a body.  How could it be turned into a punishment?_

I clenched my hand tight around the broken Gem, as I began to put the implications together.

_Gem shards.  Little pieces of Gems.  Putting them into the earth, hoping they would grow into full, living Gems through the energy and heat of the Earth itself._

_What if?_

_Multiple pieces.  Multiple Gems._

_...but these were not little pieces, taken from deceased Gems.  Taken from those long since dead._

_A combination of two different Gems, without the complicated process of fusion.  Not just two--three, even four.  Four, recently deceased Gems.  Recently killed._

_Would they even have to be dead?_

_No.  No._

_Only this Gem would be so lucky.  But the others...they would be..._

_Oh, fucking hell._

I raised my free hand to my mouth, covering it, to keep whatever empty force was trying to push out of it.  I had never felt so dizzy.  So nauseous.  Amber stood over me, still staring, and waited.  I did not know what she could possibly have expected from telling me this or involving me in it.  It was not research anymore.  It wasn’t any form of science for the good of Gemkind.  To heal them.  This science was only meant to harm, to punish, to...to...to torture.

And she meant to use Fluorite and Dumortierite for it.

My voice echoed across what sounded like the entire Kindergarten, and I did not stop it.

“ _ **YOU CAN’T DO THAT!**_ ”  I shouted, snapping my head up to meet Amber’s eyes with enough rage in them that even she looked surprised.  I took a step forward, forcefully, and she moved back from me in turn.  “They have done nothing wrong!  These--these are not fucking subjects for Homeworld to run their completely sick experiments on, they are Gems!  This,” I shoved the broken Gem into her face, “THIS WAS A **_GEM!_**  This was a living being!  Even if they did not agree with your goals, or Homeworld’s goals, they were a living, thinking being and you--you _TOOK THAT FROM THEM!_  And you would do even WORSE to them WERE THEY STILL LIVING!”  I dropped the broken gem from my hands and grabbed hold of the front of Amber’s blouse, shaking her as best I could despite being much, much smaller than her in mass,  “ _ **WHY?!** _  Homeworld cannot think that this will benefit Gemkind!  They can’t think that this will save anyone in this war, or in the future, or _ever!_  Our purpose--MY purpose here was to help our people live long, happy, healthy lives, not to turn them into some sort of **_ABOMINATION!!_** ”

From just out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door of my room open and Fluorite, spear in hand, step out with wide eyes.  Dumortierite, wearing her lens, stepped out behind her.

I continued to scream.  “This Gem wasn’t even guilty!   _I WAS!_  I was horrified of what this place had become, what YOU had become!  You used to be a woman of knowledge, I respected you, and you--you wanted me to KILL an innocent Gem for no true purpose other than Homeworld deemed them useless!  You hurt two young, innocent, WONDERFUL Gems without reason!  With your own two hands!  And you didn’t show ANY SIGN OF REGRET!!  Now you would use them in some kind of twisted, SICK EXPERIMENT?!   ** _I CAN’T LET YOU DO THIS TO THEM!!_** ”

A knife was in my hand--When did that get there?--and held to Amber’s throat.  It shook as I pressed it into her neck threateningly, my other hand still knotted into her shirt.

“ _I CAN’T LET YOU **KILL** ANY MORE GEMS!!_ ”

“S-so,” Amber breathed, slowly, her red eyes shining as she stared at me, “You would kill me?”

“I--”

My voice cut off, suddenly, as I realized what I had almost done.  My knife went still against Amber’s throat, the blade held almost close enough to pierce through the skin and cause her body to vanish.  Just as soon as it had come to my hand, it vanished, and I released Amber’s shirt from my hand and took several steps away, still breathing hard and raggedly.  Amber touched her throat.

_I can’t._

_I can’t kill another Gem._

_I can't I can't I can't._

_I'd be exactly like her.  Like them.  I'd..._

My eyes burned with tears, my stomach succeeding in finally pushing itself out of my throat as I doubled over, gagging on nothing, and was left trembling on my knees.  Before I could say anything to stop them, Fluorite and Dumortierite had run over, past Amber, and were on either side of me.  I heard Amber make a sound of startled surprise when they did so but, otherwise, she didn’t move.

“Turquoise?  Turquoise, are you okay?!”  Dumortierite brushed my hair back from my neck and placed her fingers gingerly on my Gem.  I couldn’t blame her, I was wondering if it was cracked myself right now.  Fluorite stayed absolutely quiet.  I realized her spear was held in a defensive position in front of me.  “Y-You don’t have any cracks, j-j-just...it’s just stress, please d-don’t hurt yourself!  You--”

“You...”

Amber’s voice drew both Dumortierite’s attention and mine back into the moment.

She was no longer staring at me in surprise.  It was pure anger, pure rage, and her hair had begun to float on her head in wisps.  I swear I could hear the sounds of crackling in the air, and smell the faintest traces of smoke.  It was all the warning I had before, from the tear-shaped Gem on her wrist, a large, staff appeared in her hand.  At least I believed it to be a staff until two triangles of fire burst from either side of the head.  Amber’s lips curled over her teeth as she raised the burning battleaxe over her head, and I saw Fluorite’s stance drop for just a moment out of terror.

“...you choose **this** , then, do you?”  Amber hissed, the crackling sound clearer in her voice than before, her arms showing only the slightest bit of slack as she waited for an answer.

I drew in a breath.  I had expected the air to burn my throat.  Instead, it felt cool.

“Yes.”

Amber’s ax began to swing forward directly toward my head, but in the instant before it came back over her head, there was a flash of dark-red metal and a loud creaking sound as something very, very strong held the ax back.  Amber let out a startled gasp and she, Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself all stared in confusion at the unfamiliar figure standing directly behind her.  They had one large, metallic hand holding back Amber’s weapon with surprising ease.  Their body was muscular and only a few inches taller than Amber, their hair in a large black cube, and their eyes were hidden behind reflective shades.

She smirked slightly, cocking her head to one side.  It was a familiar smile.

And when she spoke, I swore she was looking at me.

“I **_knew_** you were going to say that.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((OH BOY A LOT HAPPENED IN THIS ONE EH?!
> 
> And it still ends on a cliff hanger. I'm not sorry.
> 
> T-minus 3 chapters til another time-skip.
> 
> See you in a couple days~))


	8. Familiar Gems

Amber let out a hideous, furious growl and tried to land her elbow into the new Gem’s jaw, but missed as they side-stepped away and brought their second fist down into Amber’s ribs with a horrible sound.  She released her axe, not that she had much of a choice, and went flying into the mountain’s side from just a single punch.  I could still hear her growling and crackling away behind a dislodged boulder, but in the moment of time allowed to us, the stranger knelt in front of Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself and placed her hands under my arms, pulling me right off the ground with almost no effort.

I valiantly tried not to squeak as she did so.

“You three have to get to safety,” the stranger Gem said once I was balanced, mostly, on my own two feet.  Her hands rested on my shoulders.  “There will be others soon.  It will get violent.  Go to your room and lock it.  Once everything is clear, I’ll come get you.”

Fluorite, blessed blunt creature, said what was on all of our minds.  “Who the hell are you?!”

The Gem paused to glance where Amber had been thrown, where a pillar of smoke was steadily beginning to rise from, and then removed her hands from my shoulders.  She held her right hand out to me, which I stared at for a bit longer than it should have taken for me to register, but in my defense a lot had happened in the last ten minutes.

I should have recognized the triangle-faceted gemstone quicker than I did, but once I had--

“S-Sapphire?!”  I blurted, jerking my attention from the Gem to their face.  They smirked again and shook their head, crossing their arms in front of their chest, and I saw a second gem flash from their right hand before, on their hands, a pair of metal gauntlets appeared with a red flash of light.

“Garnet,” she corrected, “Nice to meet you, Turquoise.”

_Holy hell._

_Holy hell, she’s a fusion.  That’s incredible.  I’ve never seen one so perfectly together like this!  Sapphire is incredible!  Or, well, Garnet.  Who is the other Gem?  Another rebel, obviously, but--_

Amber suddenly let out a loud, roaring cry and leaped over the stones around her, her red hair simply ablaze in golden flames, and I was promptly torn away from my awestruck mental ramblings.

Dumortierite grabbed hold of my wrist half a second before Fluorite grabbed the other and, with a familiar rushing feeling and sudden weightlessness, the two of us were dragged along behind Fluorite as she kicked off to the side, soaring straight into my little room.  She nearly crashed into the desk as we stopped and I scrambled back to slam and lock the door behind us, Dumortierite rushing to Fluorite’s side to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself.

Past the earth walls, muffled only somewhat, we could hear nothing but the sounds of chaos that lasted the rest of the day and well into the night.  And all we could do was wait.  And dread.  And hope.

But mostly dread. 

* * *

About an hour into the fight the power had been cut, leaving the three of us in the darkness of my windowless little cave--it really, really felt like nothing but a cave with a desk and a bench in it now that the lights were gone--the three of us huddled in a corner behind the bench.  Dumortierite had buried herself into Fluorite’s chest, shaking and sobbing since we had gotten away.  Fluorite had let her spear disappear and had on arm wrapped around Dumortierite, and the other resting around my shoulders.  I was leaned against Fluorite’s side, my knees against my chest, as I tried to listen.

Listening usually calmed me, just a little, but now it was all I could do to keep sane.

“Turquoise?”  Dumortierite whispered once the sounds of fighting had grown farther away.  I turned my head towards her and she sniffled softly, “Do...d-do you think, if th-they win, the rebels will t-take us with them?”

Fluorite cut in before I could.  “The hell kind of question is that?  Of course they will,” she scoffed, “If it weren’t for Turquoise, Sapphire wouldn’t have been able to knock out those injectors and get out of here.  They owe us big time!  I don’t know who this Rose Quartz thinks she is, but they better offer you a comfy spot for all the work you did!”

I sighed and shook my head.  Fluorite gave me a raised brow and a small, confused frown.

“Oooooooor...?”

“Rose Quartz,” I began,  “Is one of the-- _was_ one of the four leading Gems of Homeworld,” I explained.  I was grateful for a chance to talk about something familiar and simple for me rather than listen to the ever quieting sounds of battle.  “She is-- _was_ a general and a pioneer for Homeworld’s colonization efforts, and of the four I believe she had the best public face of them all.  She is known to be a brilliant tactician as well as a healer, a leader, and an example to all Gems of true loyalty, trust, and compassion.  She was...no, she still **_is_ ** a legend among Gemkind.”

Fluorite let out a low whistle.  “So why did she go traitor, then?”  Dumortierite pinched Fluorite’s stomach, making her flinch and add a quick, “I mean I’m sure she had her reasons.  Like all of us.”

I shook my head, unsure exactly how to answer.

“I don’t know.  I really don’t.  Homeworld didn’t tell us anything when she began her rebellion except that she and her followers were considered enemies of Gemkind and should be dealt with as such.  I don’t know what they told the Gems on Homeworld, either, because I was here since it began.  But at least here in the Kindergartens we were told to be on alert, that the rebels were in the wrong...a whole lot of vague, poor explanations.  That’s why I thought to talk to Sapphire in the first place.  I just couldn’t take those sort of empty words without questioning it.  But I got too involved in helping her fight the system to actually ask what I wanted to.”  The room was silent before I let out a hollow laugh and added, “Maybe that’s what I’ll get for all my hard work.  Actual fucking answers.”

Dumortierite reached for my hand and squeezed it with fingers much smaller than my own.  I returned the little gesture with an honest smile.

Then I noticed it.

The room was silent.

“...guys, do you hear any--”  I began to speak, when a set of knocks rang out like bells in the otherwise quiet room, startling all three of us so badly that Fluorite drew her spear and nearly hit me in the face with the shaft as she fumbled to get a good grasp of it without moving Dumortierite.  Dumortierite in turn clicked her lense into place over her eyes and stared at the door, tense and still clinging to Fluorite’s chest.

Fluorite hissed, as quietly as she could, “What do you see?”

Dumortierite’s hold softened just slightly as her eyes travelled in a circle at the door--counting, I realized, the number of Gems she could see and their positions.  “T-Two Gems, together.  I think th-that’s Gernet.  But...but behind her, I s-see another one.  Two.  Another two.”

“Are they fused as well?”  I said quickly.

“No.  But...b-but one of them is huge...” she whispered in a tone of awe, and she moved ever so slightly from Fluorite’s front to face the door, “Their Gem is as b-big as my h-hand.  Maybe b-bigger?”

_Bigger?_

_...it can’t be, can it?_

The knocking on the door came again, and this time I stood up and, wearily, began to approach the door.  I wished then that I had set up some sort of password between the four of us a few days ago, just in case something like this happened.  But I wasn’t the one with future vision, was I?  Once I was at the door I unlocked it, trying to listen for voices on the other side.  I heard a small sound, like an intake of air in anticipation.  

I opened the door, and found myself needing to crane my neck all the way up to see _**her**._

Garnet stood there, shades cracked and a few scrapes on her body, but otherwise she seemed okay.  She let out a sigh of relief as she saw me, peering around the door-frame to find Fluorite and Dumortierite as well, and then stepped to the side so I had a clear view of the Gem behind her.

“Turquoise, Fluorite, Dumortierite, this is Rose Quartz.”

Fluorite’s hand on my back kept me from falling backwards as I took her in.

Rose Quartz towered over me and Dumortierite, having a head taller than even Garnet.  She was utterly breathtaking in stature and in beauty, even with a few small tears in her long white dress and her long pink hair somewhat skewed.  She was smiling at me and for a moment I felt even smaller compared to her in more ways than height alone.  There was curiosity in those eyes as well as power, but something soft and full of kindness, too, was conveyed in her gaze.  Suddenly I became very, very aware of why this Gem was known for being a leader.  A Gem that could instil loyalty in others of her kind and bring about a grand revolution.  She just brimmed with strength and compassion.

I almost fainted from her presence alone.    Thankfully, Fluorite kept me standing.

“...hi,” I said in a voice so quiet and meek I thought Rose Quartz wouldn’t even hear me.  Instead she chuckled and gave me a polite bow.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Turquoise,” she spoke in a rolling, warm tone that just fit everything else about her.  Rose Quartz stood straight again and placed a hand to her chest, her smile soft and full of worry, “When I heard what you did to help Sapphire, I wanted to personally thank you for your efforts for our cause.  What you risked was great.  You, and your friends, are welcome to--”

“Holy CRAP, you’re **_gorgeous_** _!_  You didn’t mention _that_ , teach!!”  Fluorite blurted, leaning her entire torso over me to get a better view through the doorway, and I let out a startled noise of protest.  Rose Quartz seemed to startle for a moment before she began to chuckle, her fingers just touching her lips as more laughter bubbled out.  

“You must be Fluorite.  I must say, you’re the amazing one.  You and...Dumortierite, is it?”  Rose Quartz’ eyes moved to Dumortierite, who had moved to stand behind Fluorite and seemed to be in the process of burying herself into her back.  She only gave a little nod and a worried sniff in response, and Rose Quartz chuckled again.  “I had not had the opportunity to meet an Earth-born Gem, and yet here you two are.  Sapphire told me a fair amount, but I would love the chance to learn more about the two of you for myself.  If you would let me?”

Fluorite didn’t need much convincing and started nodding right away.  Her momentary distraction gave me just enough time to shove her body off of my head and brush myself off, trying to regain some sort of dignity in front of, well, in front of Rose Quartz herself.  “Before, um,” I started, and stumbled, before picking my words back up again, “Before we officially, er, join your efforts, Lady Rose Quartz, I...I need to know a few things.”

Rose Quartz only nodded, her expression unchanging, and I swallowed.

“...I need to know...what exactly you’re fighting for.”

I must have asked the right thing, because her smile weakened, seriousness coming through her gentle features as she entwined her fingers together in front of her Gem.  She was still and silent for a moment before she looked to Garnet, who gave her a small nod.  Was Garnet vouching for me, sort of?  I had a feeling she was.  Rose Quartz returned her warm, sadder eyes to me.  “Very well,” she said calmly, “I suppose we have everything we need to properly explain it right here.  But I want you three to promise me something before you learn more.”

The three of us nodded.  Well, Dumortierite and I nodded, Fluorite kind of just bobbed along.

Rose Quartz stepped away from my door, to where I saw the door of the laboratory had been opened, forcefully, and she rested her palm against the doorframe.

“I want the three of you...not to blame yourselves for any of this.  It is not your fault what has happened here,” she gestured for us to follow her into the lab, pitch-dark as it was when I peered inside from behind her, “It was the fault of those who knew, not those who didn’t.” 

* * *

The laboratory was not how I had left it.  In my defense, I had not set foot in it for almost two and a half centuries, but it was definitely not the lab I had known then.  Even only in greys and black I could make out the familiar tubes of earth and soil used for research, but there were other shapes I could not recognize.  Strange shaped shadows on the tables and what seemed to be a collection of white pipes scattered around the room.  The walls had holes in them, like those I was used to seeing around the Kindergarten, but the shapes were different.  Smaller.  Finally, there was something covered in hair--was it hair?--on one of the tables, unmoving.

I saw another Gem in the room already, using the white Gem on their forehead as a lightso--

“ **AAH!** ” I shouted, suddenly, my hand outstretched and pointing at the Pearl moments before she looked up from her hands and did the very same action to me.  Rose Quartz and Garnet both gave us confused and worried glances before I turned to look at them and, hurriedly, explained, “I saw her before the war started!  She was peeking around here--I, I thought she was out-of-place, but I had no idea what she was--she was working for _you?!_ ”

Rose Quartz blinked a couple times, then said, bluntly, “Yes.  I asked Pearl to spy on this place before I started the rebellion.”

Fluorite let out an amused snort.

The Pearl--or, well, just “Pearl” I suppose--looked between myself and Rose Quartz for a moment before her attention landed on Garnet.  “She’s the one who helped you?!  She’s the one who saw me back then!  I told you, _I TOLD YOU_ it was a Turquoise!!  And you still trusted her?!”

Garnet shrugged her shoulders, but said nothing else.

Both Pearl and I made confused, exasperated noises for a while more before Rose Quartz stepped into the lab, placed a hand on Pearl’s shoulder, and simply said, “Calm down, please?”

Pearl immediately stopped making any noise.

_Wow.  I wish I could do that with Fluorite sometimes._

“She may have been the one who saw you, but she clearly didn’t tell her supervisor about you.  If she had, our rebellion would have been revealed to Homeworld long before we were prepared.  On top of that, Turquoise assisted Sapphire when she had no reason to outside of her own beliefs,”  Rose Quartz squeezed Pearl’s shoulder, softly, “She is safe.”

Pearl bit her lip, clearly wanting to say something like “How do you know?”.

Rose Quartz just gave her a warm, kind smile in response.  It was, I noticed, a smile different from the one she had given us a little while ago.  There was more kindness to it, a slightly lighter air about her.  Pearl slowly returned the smile, tinged with worry as it was.

Dumortierite whispered into Fluorite’s back, “Um, n-nobody’s going to f-fight, right?  It’s...it’s all c-calmed down?”

Fluorite looked over her shoulder at the ever shrinking Dumortierite and grinned, responding with a joking tone, “Yeah.  Though I think Turquoise is going to get an earful about not reporting weird Gem activity to the bosses later, if we stick around.  Who knows what weirdos are out there?”

Garnet, who heard that exchange, let out a small snort of laughter.

Rose Quartz gestured for us to come into the lab with one hand.  “Here, please.  Use your Gems to light up the room as best you can, I asked Enargite to fix the power source but it may take some time.”

I filed in, followed closely by Fluorite and Dumortierite.  My Gem couldn’t provide much light, being located on the back of my neck, and neither could Dumortierite’s at the base of her spine.  Fluorite’s green prism, Garnet’s hands, and Pearl’s forehead provided enough light to see, thankfully.

What was on the lab tables, and the floor, caused me to step back in confusion.

“What?”  I spoke in a hushed, startled voice,  “Are...are these organic lifeforms...?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((T-minus 2 chapters til the next time skip!
> 
> The next chapter is short, and sadly I'm starting classes again soon so I won't be updating quite as frequently.
> 
> BUT! I will still be updating at least once a week. That will give me enough time to get a chapter up and another written.
> 
> See you in a few days~))


	9. Compassionate Gem

On the table in front of me was something I had never seen before.  It was a graying, brown-ish form with limp tendrils hanging off of it, and from those hung a few thin, dry lumps.  The skin of it reminded me of the ground when it hadn’t rained in days around the Kindergarten, but asides from that comparison I couldn’t think of a way to describe it.  Rose Quartz cupped one of the dried strips in her palm and I saw a flash of deep, deep sadness in her eyes before she released it.  “This,” she spoke quietly, “Is a sapling.  They are a form of organic life on this planet that grows out of the soil, using nutrients from the ground as well as sunlight, water, and air to grow into trees.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion.  “Trees?”

“You wouldn’t have seen them if you haven’t been outside of the Kindergarten,”  Garnet answered my question as Rose Quartz went around the sapling to the small ball of hair on the next table.  It smelled horrible, but she still looked upon it sadly.  “The gems put into the ground ate up all the nutrients that the saplings would need to grow.  So they all withered away.”

“That’s...”  I hesitated on my words somewhat.  Clearly this was a subject that upset Rose Quartz, and to a lesser extent Garnet and Pearl seemed bothered by it as well, but I had no real stake in it.  I didn’t know whatever a tree or sapling was supposed to look like, but it certainly didn’t look like any form of life I’d ever seen before.  Was it that important?

Fluorite, again, spoke for me.  “That’s sad and all, but why does it matter?”

Rose Quartz looked up from the ball of hair at Fluorite without any malice in her expression, but when she held up the hairy thing and spoke again, her voice was harder, and even sadder.  “This,” she held out the ball of hair closer to me and Fluorite, “Is called a squirrel.  It is also a form of life on Earth.”

I looked over the so-called squirrel with confusion before, in the dull green light from Fluorite’s gem, I saw little hands and feet on it, as well as a face.  “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s dead,”  Garnet, again, answered bluntly.

_Dead?_

I frowned at that.  “Do they live off of the ground, too?”

Rose Quartz shook her head, placing the dead squirrel back on the desk.  She ran her finger over it’s stomach and I swore I saw her eyes sparkle with tears for a moment before, after she seemed to contemplate something, she brushed them aside.  “No.  Squirrels are only one species of life form that live off of the trees.  They eat the seeds that they produce and breath the oxygen that they make.  Without those trees, they, too, died.”

_I’m beginning to see a pattern of events here._

“At first, I was not aware of what the Kindergarten’s effects on Earth would be,”  Rose Quartz continued to speak, not looking at those of us near the door or Pearl at her side, “Slowly the mountains that the Kindergartens were based in began to lose their flora, and the animals who lived there had to leave.  I was...I was concerned, but I did not understand just how much damage could be done until I sent Pearl here.”  She placed her hand on Pearl’s shoulder, who tried to give Rose Quartz a comforting smile.  The intent was clearly missed.  “Yellow Diamond had begun telling her researchers to experiment on just how quickly they could take energy from Earth, to speed the production of Gems.  They used saplings, plants, animals, and finally...what Pearl witnessed,”

Rose Quartz turned her attention to the collection of white pipes littering the ground.  Or, rather, what I had believed to be pipes when we were in utter blackness.  In the dim lighting I could see they were meant to be something put together.  A collection of fragments of a larger structure?  I couldn’t piece it together in my mind, but smaller parts reminded me of a Gem’s projected form.

“They experimented on the primary life-form on this planet.  The experiments...killed them.”

**_...oh._ **

Homeworld, in its efforts to create more of their people for whatever reason, had chosen to use an already occupied planet filled with different forms of life--some apparently even bearing a resemblance to ourselves--and had been actively killing those lifeforms in an attempt to do more.  Make more.  I felt nauseous again.  Sickened.  And at the same time, I couldn’t find myself surprised at all.  Not with what I knew of their idea of “punishment”.

I wanted to bury myself into the mountainside and stay there for a little while.  It was necessarily guilt towards the Earth that I felt, but it was hearing how heartbroken Rose Quartz sounded, seeing the tears held in her eyes, that made me want to disappear.

Dumortierite’s hand grip to my elbow and Fluorite’s as well, making a low whimpering noise.  “That’s...” she sobbed, “That’s horrible...w-w-we were made...we were made b-by taking l-life from them?  From th-this place?  That’s t-terrible...I...I’m s-so sorry...” Fluorite turned around to face Dumortierite and wrap both of her arms around her, giving her a squeeze.  Rose Quartz watched the two of them with a warm smile before taking a few steps closer.

“You didn’t do this,” Rose Quartz place one hand on either of the Earth Gems’ shoulders, “You were unaware of what Homeworld was doing, as were you, Turquoise.”  I avoided her gaze.  “It was only those under Yellow Diamond that knew what was happening behind the scenes.  And what you did to help us bring a stop to it more than makes up for any kind of guilt or shame you believe you deserve.”  She placed a hand under Dumortierite and Fluorite’s chins and tilted them up enough for her to meet their eyes, “I am happy to know that two strong, brave, and wonderful Gems came out from a place like this.  I am sure there may be more in other Kindergartens that have yet to be freed.  If you help us, we will be able to relinquish Homeworld’s control over Earth and not only save Earth’s lifeforms, but our own fellow Gems as well.”

Rose Quartz turned around to find me staring at my boots.  Even when I felt her hand on my shoulders this time, I couldn’t bring myself to look up.  It wasn’t her mere presence that made me unworthy or small.

_Even if she says it wasn’t my fault..._

“Turquoise?”  Rose Quartz said softly, waiting expectantly.

_...even if she thinks I can “make up for it”...I..._

I swallowed before I spoke, uneasier than I had wanted to sound.  “I’m not a fighter.  I’m barely capable of using my weapon for anything other than scientific purposes.  I don’t know how I’d be useful to you, or in helping the Earth, or any of those things.  I’m just...I’m just a scientist, and I was proud of that.  Now I’m not so sure,”  I squeezed my eyes shut,  “I’m not sure I should be proud of it, if what I wanted to do wound up doing so much harm!  And I don’t think I can even do something to fix what I helped to break!”

“Turquoise...”

Rose Quartz’ hands were suddenly cupping my jaw, and my eyes shot open just in time for her to move my whole face up to stare into her eyes.  They were sparkling and full of kindness, care, and empathy for me.  I wasn’t sure if they made me feel better or worse about everything.  She waited a while in silence before returning her hands to my shoulders.  “You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to.  You only have to help us.  You are a scientist, and a researcher?  Then you are still a Gem of value to our cause and to me.  What we are doing is not for the sake of fighting.  It is for the sake of protecting what is important to us--whatever that may be.”

Her hands slid away from my shoulders and she stepped back so Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself were all in front of her, in all her splendor.  An urge to bow or take a knee in front of her right now, in this moment, as almost overwhelming.  I understood why she was so revered just from her stature and grace alone, but it was more than that.  There was more than the brilliant tactical mind I had heard of or the magnificent Gem I saw before me.

Her kindness, her _love_ , was as strong as a physical force around her.

“Now that you know our goals, and I have answered your questions, allow me to formally ask.  We are the Crystal Gems,” she smiled, with glittering eyes, and outstretched on hand to the three of us, “And we will protect the Earth at any cost.  Will you join us, Dumortierite?”

Dumortierite swallowed, and placed her trembling hand in Rose Quartz’.

“Fluorite?”

Fluorite  nearly slapped her hand into Rose Quartz’, earning a small laughter from her.

“And Turquoise?”

* * *

There was not a shred of doubt in me when I took her hand.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Like I said, short chapter, but now it's time for a time-skip!
> 
> See you next week!))


	10. Beloved Gem

One-hundred thirty years.  They passed in the blink of an eye, and although they still held the dread of war in them, I somehow felt better than I had in a long, long time.  The Kindergarten had been long since abandoned by Rose Quartz’ forces and Fluorite, Dumortierite, and myself had been brought with them to the rebel base of operations.  It was located in a large quarry, surrounded by multitudes of flora that I had never seen before, a few pools of water, and several temporary structures on the dry stone.  The Crystal Gems, I came to learn, were a much smaller force than I had anticipated.  From the way Homeworld spoke of them they sounded dangerous, unpredictable, and large enough to handle Homeworld’s armies.  But what we found was a small collection of very skilled Gems, all of them with their own gifts and abilities, and all of them entirely loyal to Rose Quartz.

Seeing as we were here, too, I suppose we fit into those categories too.

For the time spend in the quarry, I took up my previous position from Homeworld as a researcher and rehabilitator.  With the aid of Rose Quartz’ healing tears I looked at Gems who came back from battles and Kindergarten raids alike, treating cracks in them with ease.  I tried to study and recreate her tears, but it was a trying and difficult task.  I still found it fun to attempt, in a weird way, while I was waiting for the Gems who went off to fight or raid.

Fluorite began to learn better combat capabilities from the older, stronger Gems.  For a while she trained with the Pearl that stayed by Rose Quartz’ side for most of the time, but their personalities grated against each other until everyone decided Fluorite would be better off with a different teacher.  Her ability to leap quite literally over mountains was recognized as its own form of flight, though she couldn’t stay in the air for more than a few seconds.  She became braver, able to hold her own when faced with a seemingly stronger opponents.

Dumortierite’s lense was an invaluable asset, able to scout out  the exact number of enemy Gems at an incredible distance and through solid objects.  Unfortunately, no amount of teaching or encouragement made her any less fearful of direct combat.  She began to hide out in the highest cliffs whenever it was time for her training.  The only one who could bring her out of hiding, or get her even remotely close to fighting, was Fluorite.  The two of them only became more and more inseparable as decades went on.

It really was no surprise when they tried to fuse for the first time, but it did attract a crowd.

Or, more specifically, Fluorite dragged me, Sapphire, and Rose Quartz to see them try.  Sapphire brought her fusion partner, Ruby--whom was just as teensy but much, much more energetic than she was--and Rose Quartz whispered around the rebel settlement about what was happening.

I don’t know why, exactly, but I was so proud of them. 

* * *

"Are you ready, Dumor?”  Fluorite was beaming, bouncing in place in the clearing of rose bushes that they’d chosen to try fusing in.  Dumortierite stood across from her, fiddling anxiously with the ends of her braid.  The four of us--well, the four who weren’t pretending not to be there at the moment--were exchanging encouraging looks while also glancing between one another.

Dumortierite finally nodded, gripping the front of her sweater.  “I-I’m ready...!”

Ruby let out a loud ‘WHOOP!’ and raised her hands above her square-cut hair that always reminded me of Garnet, “Good luck, guys!  You can do it!”  Rose Quartz and Sapphire both chuckled to themselves.  I was leaning in, my hands cupping my chin, and grinning like an idiot.  Dumortierite flushed a deep shade of blue, almost black, at Ruby’s encouragement while Fluorite laughed it off.

Their dance was one part awkwardness and panic, but the other comfortable and well-practiced.  Despite her rowdy personality and occasional speaking-without-thinking, Fluorite had incredibly delicacy and grace with every step.  Dumortierite had a different sort of movement, slow and loose and flowing like water.  They stepped around each other a couple times before Dumortierite took both of Fluorite’s hands and held them, crossed at the wrists, over her chest.  Fluorite in turn released the embrace and spun her tiny partner out and into a dip.  As they moved, the gems on their chest and the small of their back began to glow until, suddenly--

“EEP!”

\--the white light surrounding their bodies dissipated and with an unceremonious thud, both of them were on the ground.  Fluorite let out an irritated huff and blew her hair from out of her face, and Dumortierite looked close to tears.

“I’m...I’m sorry, I g-got nervous...”  Dumortierite said with a tremble in her voice.

Ruby and Sapphire exchanged a worried glance.  I caught the way they looked at each other, cocking my head to the side, but thought nothing of it past that.  I was more concerned for Fluorite and Dumortierite.  

It was Rose Quartz, however, that spoke up first.  She stood up and clapped, a bright smile on her lips, and stepped forward to Dumortierite to help her stand again.  “There’s no need to be sorry,” Rose Quartz began, moving from Dumortierite to Fluorite to help her to her own feet, “You both were doing wonderfully, but it’s completely natural to be scared your first time.  Fusion takes a large amount of trust, and it can be frightening to be so vulnerable to another Gem.”

Fluorite’s bluntness got the better of her again.  “But I trust Dumor fine!  We’re best friends!  Right?”  There was a hint of worry I rarely, if ever, heard in Fluorite’s usually confident voice, “...right?”

Dumortierite could have lifted off the ground with how quickly she nodded.

Sapphire spoke up, “Even though you trust one another, and deeply care for one another, it may still be difficult to fuse.  You need to find...the right balance with your partner, and continue to communicate with every step of the dance.”  Again, I saw Ruby looking at Sapphire with a small grin.  “You were doing wonderfully.  If you want, you should try again.”

Rose Quartz nodded and began to return to her seat, leaving Fluorite and Dumortierite standing across from each other again, only this time in the opposite spots than before.  There was a silence between them for a while, save a few nervous whispers from behind myself and the other three “invited” audience members.

Dumortierite held out her hand first this time, her expression filled with hope.  “Ready, F-Flo?”

Fluorite, this time, flushed a pale green before her face split into a grin.  “ ** _Hells_ ** yes!”

“Oh, for...”  I muttered and pinched the bridge of my nose, although I was smiling behind my hand.  Sapphire chuckled again and patted me on the shoulder.  I looked at her with both weariness and pride.  Somehow.  I hoped I managed to convey both feelings.

Their second dance was much the same as the first, clumsy and awkward but excited and free.  When Fluorite dipped Dumortierite this time, however, Dumortierite burst into a fit of giggles and wrapped her arms tight around Fluorite’s neck, pulling her into a hug.  Fluorite broke not a moment later and picked her up, nearly tilting entirely backwards as she did so.  There was a flash of blue-green light, blended into a body of pure white.

Their fusion emerged from the light with a shower of bright blue sparkles.  Her hair was long and reached her ankles, dark and braided similarly to Dumortierites’, but her height and skin was a much lighter shade of blue, though still a little darker than my own and Sapphire’s.  She had two green eyes but four arms, each one gloved similarly to Fluorite’s, and she wore a gray dress that reached her knees, with little pockets for her two gems to show in the front and the back.

She wobbled for a moment, finding it difficult to balance, probably, with the addition of two new limbs and much more height--at least on Dumortierites’ part.  Once she stopped swaying, the fusion Gem raised her head to stare at the four of us, before breaking into a smile.

Ruby hopped right off of her seat and ran up, grabbing both of her lower hands, and spinning her around in a circle.  “LOOK AT YOU!” she said rather loudly, “You look great!  Hot damn!  Sapphy, look at them!  Wow, you’re so TALL!”

Sapphire laughed more than I had ever heard her laugh before and floated up to Ruby’s side, touching her on the shoulder gently to stop her from toppling the fused Gem over with more spinning.  “You do look wonderful.  What is your name?”

“Um...Chrysocolla,”  she spoke before touching her throat and blinking, “Is that what I...sound like?  We?  This is so...so strange.”

I came up behind Sapphire and Ruby with a bit less excitement.  I will admit, I was nervous.  I had known Fluorite and Dumortierite for nearly a century and a half, and while it may not have felt like very long for most Gems, it had been all their lives.   _I’ve known them all their lives.    Huh._  I knew it was both of them in there, but the feeling of unease still settled in.  I looked up at Chrysocolla, hands on my hips, and tilted my head to one side.  “Well, great,” I frowned sternly, “You’re both taller than me now.  Just great.  Now who am I supposed to call tensey?”

Chrysocolla stared at me for a little while and my worry only grew.

_You recognize me, right?_

But my worries were for naught, because after a moment to figure out exactly where to grab, Chrysocolla had picked me up by each of my limbs and lifted me right up into the air.  I made a horrible noise between a gasp and a bleat as I found myself hoisted right onto her shoulders.  “Think of it this way instead,” Chrysocolla snickered, “You get a magnificent view now.  Isn’t that better?”

I tried not to turn purple as Sapphire, Ruby, and Rose Quartz all started laughing.  Followed shortly by the laughter of the other watching Gems in the rose thickets.  The moment was short lived, however, for as soon as Chrysocolla heard the laughter of the other Gems she let out a squeak--definitely Dumortierite’s squeak--and there was another flash of light.  This time all three of us landed in a pile with Fluorite on the bottom and Dumortierite smooshed between the two of us.  Ruby laughed a little louder, and even Rose Quartz chuckled as she knelt next to the pile of us.  

“Well,” Rose Quartz said warmly, “That could have ended a little better.  But at least you did it.”

Dumortierite blushed completely black this time, pushing off of the ground so she could meet Fluorite’s gaze.  “I’m s-s-sorry, again!  I, um, I panicked!  Too many people...I, um--”

Fluorite only shook her head, pulled Dumortierite into a tight hug, and laughed in response.  

I rolled off the two of them with a grumble of pain, only to find myself staring at two pairs laughing, together, with their arms around each other.  Fluorite and Dumortierite stayed laying on the ground snickering and occasionally whispering things like “that was incredible” and “I wonder what our weapon will be”, but my eyes didn’t stay on them.

Ruby was casually hanging off of Sapphires’ shoulders, her face buried in her hair and mumbling something.  Sapphire, in turn, was giggling and blushing a deep blue and occasionally swatting at Ruby’s hands with her own.  They looked so immensely happy to just be touching one another even in the tiniest way.  Was that why their fusion looked so complete?

I sat up and looked away from the four of them, catching a glimpse of Rose Quartz as she, alone, caught my small frown.  It’s not jealousy I feel.  Sapphire and Ruby have probably known each other for a very long time, and Fluorite and Dumortierite seem like they were made for each other.  I’m not jealous of any of them.  And I shouldn’t be.  Without looking to see if either pair noticed me, or stopping when Rose Quartz brushed her hand against my shoulder, I walked out of the clearing to return to my quarters.

_So...why does it still leave me feeling bitter?_

* * *

“Turquoise?  Are you feeling alright?”  I heard Rose Quartz speaking from outside of the cave I was currently working in, my lab-coat slung over a small stone while I hunched over a low, metal sheet I had converted into a table.  I was picking at the healing tears formula again out of habit, or maybe because it was a calming cycle of trial and error that I was used to.  Either way I didn’t look up from my work even at my leader’s call.  I just kept my eyes on my work.

I heard a soft sigh, followed by footsteps echoing in the cave.  I finally looked up when Rose Quartz’ hair turned the light above me a shade of pink.  “Sorry,” I started, “I was just feeling a little cooped up.  Lots of hugging and stuff.  I felt a bit awkward.”  Rose Quartz didn’t press further vocally, but the hand she placed on my desk as she peered over my shoulder felt like a subtle “go on”.  I bit my lip and stopped tinkering.  “...how long have Ruby and Sapphire known each other?”

Rose Quartz was quiet for a moment, contemplating, before answering.  “They were a pair of working Gems in my court for a very long time.  Almost as long as Pearl has been.  I don’t know if they knew each other before then, but when I decided to come to earth I brought them and Pearl with me, specifically because I knew they were friends.  It hasn’t always been like this, mind you,” she chuckled quietly, “Fluorite and Ruby are very similar, you know.  Both of them are very rash and very blunt.  Sapphire has always been calm and collected.  Every now and then, she and Ruby would have horrible fights and end up needing another Gem to act as mediator."

“However,” she sat next to me on another stone, and I realized I had been looking up and watching her since she started talking.  So much for looking uninterested.  “They would always find a compromise and continue to work past their arguments.  Even now with the two of them so close, there are days when they seem to be having problems.  It is a constant process, and I believe it’s that process that’s more important than how long they’ve known each other.  Does that make sense, Turquoise?”

I swallowed and looked away, maybe a little ashamed of myself, and nodded.

She placed her hand on my arm.  “Does their closeness bother you?”

“No!”  I answered quickly, “No, I think it’s wonderful.  They get on so well and I hadn’t seen Sapphire nearly as happy during the week at the Kindergarten as I’ve seen her with Ruby.  I think they’re great together.  Really!”  My fingers scratched against the edges of the table, “I...I guess I just wanted to know more about them, together?  I’ve seen Fluorite and Dumortierite getting closer and closer since, well, since they were made.  So.  I understand things better the more I know about them.  That makes sense, right?  Sort of?”

Rose Quartz chuckled again, nodding.  “A little.  You have a lot in common with Pearl.”

I stopped fidgeted with the table and looked up at Rose Quartz, confused.  “Your...um...”

“My Pearl,” she spoke, and there was something to her words that killed off the question on my lips.  I had not gone out of my way to speak to the Pearl, and she had kept the same distance from me.  The only times I ever really saw her was when Rose Quartz was around, in which case Pearl was usually right at her side.  It was only when Rose Quartz insisted otherwise that Pearl would do something else.  Come to think of it, she must have told her not to come earlier, or now.  “You are both very literal-minded Gems, and prefer to think with your head rather than your instincts.  Those are good qualities for a scientist, but as I have told Pearl countless times, you have difficulties with understanding yourself when you’re feeling rather than thinking.”

I chewed on the inside of my mouth.  “...I can feel just fine.”

“I know you can, Turquoise,” Rose Quartz smiled warmly and shook her head, “I just want you to remember that, if you are confused or feel like something is bothering you, you can talk to the other Gems and figure things out instead of leaving without explaining.”

This time my hand flew up and slapped against my forehead, and I groaned.  “Oh, dammit!  Did I freak out Dumortierite and Fluorite?  I didn’t--I didn’t mean to just storm off while they were there, I just felt awful and bitter and--I just didn’t want to ruin their moment with that...shit,”  I dragged my hand down across my face, revealing my irritated frown to Rose Quartz, “Look at me, the oh-so-smart Gem, and there I go making an ass of myself.”

“Oh, don’t say that, Turquoise,”  Rose Quartz chastised me gently, placing her hand over mind and patting it, “If you just explain, I’m sure it will be alright.  They both care very deeply for you--”

_Not as much as they care for each other,_ some nasty little part of me chimed in.

“--and the admire you so very much.  Fused or not, you are still the Gem they have looked up to all their life.  You know that, right?”

I felt my cheeks getting warmer and purple-er, so I ducked my face slightly from Rose Quartz’ view.  It didn’t work as well without my lab coat’s collar in the way.   _Dammit._  “Yeah.  Yes.  I guess I do.”

Rose Quartz gave me one more warm smile before she began standing up.  Then she paused for a moment and looked over my table and the healing tears I had been experimenting with.  I glanced over my shoulders for a moment and saw something whirring away in her head.  Curiosity turned me all the way around to face her.  “What is it, ma’am?”  I asked, trying to hide any eagerness.

She put a finger to her lip,  “Hm.  I may have an idea that I would need your help with.  It...involves the healing properties of my tears, and if it could happen, then you and the other rebels would be able to use that healing power without me staying in the camp.  Would you be interested?”

“Would I?  Of course I would!”  This time I sounded a bit too excited, hopping literally off of my seat, grinning at the prospect of a new project to keep my head on straight--and something to help the other Gems, too!

Rose Quartz beamed at me.  “Excellent.  Let’s find Pearl, and start scoping out a location in the quarry.  This will be a definite help for our cause.”

I followed after her, out of my cave, before asking, “What are you thinking of, ma’am?”

“A fountain,” she placed both hands on her stomach, on either side of the beautiful pink gem that lay there, “A fountain using my tears, so anyone that needs healing may always find it here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Talky-chapter, talky-chapter, setting up for thiiiiiiiiings...
> 
> See you next week~))


	11. Unified Gem

    “It’s starting to look more like...something,” I grumbled to myself as I adjusted a pipe for the eighth time this evening.  The work on Rose Quartz’ fountain was as difficult as it was promising.  To properly keep her healing tears clean of debris while operating as a perpetually refreshing source of them, I had to make a filtering system that could continue to work independently and on a magical material that I hadn’t even been able to recreate properly.  Irritating and trying, but honestly I needed the project to feel a little more useful for Rose Quartz and her rebellion.  

    However, the Gem who had been at my side the most in helping to create this fountain was not Rose Quartz herself.  Pearl was holding her chin in her hands as she watched me work, taking a small break in her own part of the project.  

    She held her hands out, gesticulating as she spoke, “What if there was a way to run a purifying solution for the healing tears into the fountain with the tears themselves?  Then when they mix in the fountain, it purifies them in the pool and not just at the source.  Or...if we had a solution that could mimic the healing property by blending with the tears, we’d reduce the amount we needed, and...”

    I tuned her out for a little while to step back and look over my work.  I didn’t mind working with Pearl, per say, but she had a lot of ideas that were useful in theory, but we had no way to make them in reality.  I did, however, find myself considering the “mimicking solution” idea.  I turned to face Pearl, leaning against the wall we had been securing the pipes to.  “That’s not a bad idea.  I’ve been trying to make something that worked like the tears, but it may be easier to work on something that just expands on what’s already there instead of duplicating it entirely.”

    Pearl smiled, looking pleased with herself, “Great!”  But then her face dropped, “Wait, why were you experimenting on Rose’s tears in the first place?”

_Just Rose, huh?  And Rose Quartz calls her “my Pearl”, too.  Hm._

    “I’ve kind of been working on something similar to them since before the war started.  We can’t always rely on those tears to heal Gems, especially when Rose Quartz is busy fighting or healing or doing something elsewhere,”  I debated adding the next part, but something in me wanted to say it, “When I was on the other side of things, I guess I was...worried that the rebels had the biggest advantage compared to the rest of us:  her healing powers.  So I wanted to find some way to even the field a bit.”  

    I could see some sort of anger in Pearl’s eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, about to speak, but I raised both of my hands defensively and continued.  “Not that there is any reason to think that way now.  Now I’m just trying to find a way to lessen Rose Quartz’ burden, be it with this fountain or with a concoction of my own that can copy her tears.  I want to help.  Really.”

_Trust me, will you?  It’s been a century.  Yikes._

    Pearl’s frown became a little weaker before she nodded in agreement, albeit tentative.  “That’s...not a bad goal, I suppose,”  I dropped my hands and stared at her for a little while before I accepted that that was the closest I would get to something positive right now, “Let’s try to finish this up quickly.  Then we can start on the design of the fountain itself.”

    “Do you have any ideas?”  I extended.  

    Pearl was quiet again before a small, brilliant smile spread across her face and she nodded.  “I do!  And I’m sure Rose is going to love it!”

    I couldn’t help it, I chuckled at her excitement.  It seemed the easiest way to ease Pearl’s paranoia over me was to talk about Rose Quartz.  I could live with that.  At least I didn’t have to do anything ridiculous to get on her good side, I just wanted to stay in her neutral zone.

_Though...I’m not sure Pearl has any room in the “good side” for anyone but Rose Quartz._

* * *

    Pearl and I were visited by Garnet just after I had put the final test of the mimicry concoction into the healing tears we had been given.  I still had to take a moment to adjust to her presence.  Every now and then Garnet would be walking around the camp as opposed to Sapphire and Ruby separately.  I assumed this was a normal happening for the rebels, who had at least two decades to know them and their fusion, but I still slipped up now and then and had to remind myself what was going on.  Garnet visited with her arms crossed in front of her chest, watching curiously from a ledge above us.

    “Is it working?”  Pearl chirped, leaning over the little dish I had placed both liquids in.

    I frowned,  “I...I think so.  But it kind of looks like all of them did at this stage.”

    Pearl let out a small sigh and leaned away, sitting in a comfortable pretzel with her hands in her lap,  “Maybe this is pointless.  The potion, not the fountain.  If we only had a better understanding of what we’re working with, then we would actually be getting somewhere.

    “What number try is that?”  Garnet asked off-hand.  Pearl gave her a sideways glance, pursing her lips for a moment.

    “Eighty-seven,”  I spoke up first, stirring the liquids together with a glass stick, “But it’s the thirty-first attempt in the open air.  It makes it a bit harder to predict the variables, but the fountain is going to be open, too, so it’s a good idea to test it the same way.”

    “It was my idea,”  Pearl added, unnecessarily.  Garnet nodded and said nothing else past that.

    The liquid bubbled and popped a few times as I stirred, breaking the silence now and then.  I had noticed in my time since coming to Rose Quartz’ side a strange relationship between some of the Gems.  There was no real unifying love for Earth among them, and sometimes it seemed like their relationships with each other were strained.  I saw it now, here, with Pearl and Garnet.  It was slight, but it was there.

  _I haven’t heard quiet this irritating since the Kindergartens._

    “...Pearl, what was your idea for the fountain?”  I broke the silence as best I could, attracting the attention of both Gems.  Pearl’s eyes lit up immediately and she clasped her hands together, clapping them lightly with absolute glee.

    “I’m so glad you asked!”

_Maybe I should have asked sooner, then._

    Pearl raised her hands to her forehead and crossed them once at the wrist before pulling them down, dramatically.  Suddenly a burst of blue light erupted from her Gem and a screen above our heads began to phase in and out of focus.  I stopped stirring and stared up at the projection with surprise, and Garnet tilted her head to the other side.  Slowly the image on the screen turned into something halfway between a blueprint and imagination.  A statue of Rose Quartz standing over a wide, open pool with flowers in the water, surrounded by beautiful bushes of the same flower.  Roses.  Of course.

    “I would need to ask Rose to assist with the flowers, but I believe she would love it.  The tears could flow from the statue’s eyes!  My only fear,” she put a finger to her chin, “Is the statue itself.  I’m not sure it would capture Rose as well as...”

    “I think it looks good,”  Garnet spoke, a small smile showing.

    Pearl turned, sharply, to look at Garnet.  “You...you really think so?”  Garnet only nodded, again, but that seemed to be all the answer needed.  Pearl grinned all the brighter and the projection faded away.  “Wonderful!  I was hoping everyone would like it!”

    I looked between the two of them, the dish of the perfected serum unnoticed, for now, in my lap.

    _That’s the unifying force, isn’t it?_

* * *

    The final touches were added to the statue over the course of a couple week, after spending almost a year and a half to properly get the replenishment and purification chambers finished.   When it came to the making of the statue itself I was almost entirely useless.  Sure, I could do precise cuts and measurements as well as I had to for scientific purposes, but artistic integrity had never been my strong point.  So I sat watching those that were artsy work from the edge of the still empty fountain, occasionally being asked if the statue looked good.  Which, since Pearl was also there watching, meant she was always answering before I could.

    A muscular and medium-height Gem with black skin, gold eyes, and a shock of sunlight-yellow hair was in charge of sculpting.  Enargite, I remembered her name being.  She was apparently the rebellion’s chief engineer and technician, but she never said a word.  Always dead silence with the occasional nod, smirk, or frown.  Her gemstone was on her wrist, a pointed collection of gleaming, metallic prisms.  It was pretty in a rough, unpolished way.

    But its location of it reminded me of Ambers’.

    I didn’t realize I was chipping my knife into the stone of the fountain until Pearl patted my hand.  I looked up at her and found, to my surprise, concern.  “Is...everything okay?” she asked in an awkward but genuinely worried tone of voice, “You seem distracted.”

    “Oh,” I responded intelligently, and returned my attention to the statue, “Just hoping it looks great.  That’s all.  We’ve been at it for a while, haven’t we?”  I pushed a smile to the surface, “I want to see it finished.”

    Pearl accepted that answered with a small ‘tsk’ noise.  “If you say so.”

    _I’ve never been a good liar,_  I sighed, quietly, and my knife vanished from my hand.

    From her work, Enargite looked up towards the pair of us and thumbed upwards towards the statue’s face.  The eyes were currently half-lidded holes for where we would put the pipes, as Pearl had suggested, but otherwise it was without any details.  She was asking for help, presumably.

    Pearl leaped, literally, from my side to in front of the statue, beaming.  “I’ve got it!”  Her hands crossed in front of her face for a moment and pulled back once more.  The same holographic projection she had used to assist in the blueprints appeared, only this time much more condensed.   I blinked, somewhat startled, to see a picture image of Rose Quartz in all her towering splendor standing where the statue was, some parts of her melding into the stone where it had been carved to near perfection.  Her face was gentle, almost sad, and it made my heart ache just a little to see it.

    Come to think of it, it was the same face I had seen in the lab, a century ago.

    Had she remembered it solely for something like this?

    “This should help,” Pearl said smugly, and Enargite simply rolled her eyes and stepped up on a small metal stool to continue working, as if she had never been interrupted.

    I chuckled to myself before my attention turned from the projection’s expression to Pearl’s, and stopped abruptly.  As confident as her voice had sounded, she was staring at the somber expression of Rose Quartz with what could have been tears in her eyes, her fingers covering her mouth just so.  I paled slightly.  Rose Quartz’ hurt expression lingered in my mind only when I was reminded, but Pearl?  I suddenly had the feeling that she was always, always remembering that look of pain on the woman she most adored and trusted’s face.

    Maybe that was why she remembered.  Because it was a side of Rose Quartz so rarely seen, and so completely heart-breaking, that it should be remembered even in a time of peace.

* * *

    “It looks absolutely wonderful, Gems.”  Rose Quartz stood on the edge of the fountain, her hand in the hand of her stone likeness, admiring the finished product of the fountain.  The somber, calm expression on the statue held the same tenderness as her glowing smile as she took it in.  Pearl, Enargite, and myself stood ready near her with our own kinds of eagerness and nervousness.  At least Enargite only needed to worry about the look of the statue, Pearl and I had to hope that the fountain would turn on and flow properly when she asked.  The fear that something would be wrong at the last minute stirred in my stomach like it was its own living creature.

    Rose Quartz turned from the statue to the three of us, her eyes somehow on us as a group and yet looking at us all individually with pure delight.  “Is it all set up?  May I see it in action?”

    I nodded and swallowed the lumps in my throat, and practically raced to the door in a stone wall that now circled the fountain.  Everything technical and not very pleasing visually had been placed behind the wall, going through the earth, and to the fountain.  All I needed to do was remove the stopper in the main pipes and begin its flow.

    My hand rested on the stopper, and I hesitated for a moment.

    _I’m so desperate for her praise.  When did that happen?  No, it’s not desperation.  I could live without it.  But at the same time, I want it.  I want her to be proud of me, and be happy._

_I want to be happy with her._

    I looked back over my shoulder.

    _They all want that, don’t they?  Whether or not the planet survives, that is a driving goal, but the true heart of it all is Rose Quartz.  She pulls people to her without force, but with kindness.  She just loves so unconditionally that you can’t help but want to make her happy, so she’ll continue to love._

    There was a thickness in my throat that I couldn’t swallow, and I turned my head back to the stopper.  My eyes were wet with tears as a cold fear came over me through my hopeful spirit.

    _I’ve known people like her before.  No, I knew a person almost like her.  Amber put so much spirit into their dreams and her passions and her wishes, and that hope drew people in who wanted more than anything to help.  And the war broke her.  How does Rose Quartz keep going?  What is it?  Is it the Gems she holds close to her that keep her above that limit?  Will...will it keep her going, until the end of it all?  How does she handle the loss of those Gems?_

_Is that why she cries and makes those heartbreaking faces, because she needs us and can’t lose us?_

    I removed the stopper, and the pale pink liquid rushed forward in the pipes.  I could hear it as it went through the metal tubes I could see and into the ones underground, and I waited.  From over the wall I heard Rose Quartz gasp, a light and excited sound that tugged at the corners of my lips.  I could practically see her face light up.

    _I...I want to make her happy.  I want to be here for her.  I want to, just like the rest of them..._

    I wiped my eyes before I went back out to join them.

    _...because I fear for her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Jump around, jump, jump, jump around. Dialogue heavy chapters for getting into people's heads. Jump, jump.
> 
> See you next week!
> 
> UPDATE 9/18: So something personal and sad came up, and I won't be updating this weekend. Sorry y'all. See you next week.))


	12. Sworn Gems

I had almost forgotten that we were at war, spending so long in the calm of Rose Quartz’ main camp, but the reminder shattered my foolish beliefs of “peace times” so easily that I wondered how I had ever made them in the first place.

A mere seventy-five years after the completion of the Rose Quartz fountain, our camp was called away from the quarry to another rebel base further to the east.  We had received the message over a wailing stone that Rose Quartz kept in her quarters that there had been an attack on us this time rather than the other way around, and to everyone’s dread, we hurried to reach them as quickly as we possibly could.  It proved harder without the use of a trustworthy teleportation method, and most of the journey was made on foot, running from the nearest unguarded location to leap to the next and keep running.

By the time we reached the camp, it was thankfully deserted of Homeworld troops.

Unfortunately, and to our horror, it was also deserted of rebels, too.

Rose Quartz moved ahead of us all despite Pearl’s short-lived protest and stood on the barren shore with her back to us.  Ahead of her lay the remains of a camp buried in sand and embers, small fragments of too many gems for me to think of counting, and weapons laid strewn about in the sand.  Chrysocolla behind me made a small, whimpering noise and wrapped two pairs of trembling arms around my shoulders, which I held onto as tightly as I could.  There was simply no camp here, but we knew there had been.  It seemed to have simply ceased to be with all the lives that had once been in it.

None of us, not even Pearl, could approach Rose Quartz until her stillness broke, and she moved to the base of a great mountain overlooking the shore.  A half-finished, clearly not professionally made teleportation pad was embedded in a cavern  overlooking the shore.  She closed her eyes, chuckled dryly and ruefully, and spoke to the Gems behind her.

“I told them to come here,”  her voice was deep and heavy, weighed down from her usual cheery and tenderness,  “I told them that they would be safest from the fight here, near the sea, far away from the Kindergartens.  If I had told them to stay by me, instead...”

Pearl took a timid step forward, her hands wringing together at her chest.  “Rose...you couldn’t have known.  Homeworld was not moving against us, we were attacking them.  We didn’t think they would risk bringing the fight to us.”

Rose Quartz looked over her shoulder and down at Pearl, her eyes wet with tears and a weak, empty smile on her face.  “Didn’t I?  Here I placed a collection of my rebels who I had set aside simply because they didn’t want to fight, thinking they were safe, when I had left them entirely defenseless to oncoming attacks.  Yes, I believed we had an advantage in knowing the Earth better, but now this is not the case anymore.  Gems,” she turned to face us all, and I know mine was not the only spine to go absolutely stone stiff, “Homeworld is no longer waiting for this war to pass.  We have proved that we are worthy enough opponents to merit return-fire, and they have chosen to start their killing with those of our people who wanted only peace.  This is what I feared would happen.”

 _But not this soon,_  I heard behind her words and in her eyes.

“It is our decision now how to strike back.  I will rally our remaining camps.  We cannot be spread across the globe performing small missions on our own anymore.  We will be hunted and destroyed by Homeworld’s forces.  I ask you, my Gems, to fight in this rebellion in what it was destined to be from the start: a great, horrible war against the oppression of Homeworld, for the good of Earth.  I will not force you to sacrifice your safety, your happiness, or your lives for my cause,” Rose Quartz held her hands together, cupped underneath the beautiful gemstone on her stomach,  “This may accumulate into one final battle, or last for five hundred more years.  I cannot tell you the future.  I cannot tell you that we will be victorious.  But I beg of you to chose what you believe is right, and to fight for it with all that you are for as long as you are willing, as my Crystal Gems.”

There was dead silence among the small crowd, save for the sound of Chrysocolla’s tense, worried breathing making her chest brush against my hair and the low noises of the water on sand near us.  Rose Quartz turned and said something softly to Pearl before she retreated into the cavern, alone, and Pearl began issuing orders in an even, detached voice to give Rose Quartz some time to think.

I took Chrysocolla by the wrists and lead them to the water while the rest of them dispersed into similar small groups.  I saw Garnet by herself, arms wrapped around her own torso.  I saw Pearl staring off into the cavern.  I saw a shadow of Rose Quartz picking something that gleamed off of the cavern floor...and couldn’t bear to look at anyone else after that.

* * *

“What’s going to happen?”  Chrysocolla asked quietly, evenly, as she lay next to me on the lip of the water.  I shed my lab-coat and boots and let the water brush against my feet.  Chrysocolla rested on her stomach facing the water with her twenty fingers drawing strange designs and patterns into the wet sand.  “Now that the fights coming to us, I mean.  Are...you alright with that, Turq?  With staying here?”

I shrugged my shoulders, unsure how to put my thoughts into words right now.  I felt devastated, but not quite for the loss of every gem in this camp.  I had feared this change coming not that long ago; the fear that Rose Quartz would be forced, like those she was leading, to make a sacrifice for her dream that would cause her nothing but pain.  Maybe it wasn’t this choice, or the choice that had lead for these gems to be here and die here, but it was coming faster now than ever.  I didn’t need Sapphire or Garnet to tell me that.

Chrysocolla sighed and watched the next wave wipe out the top half of her drawings.  “You said before that you didn’t want to fight.  You wanted to help.  Do you think that will still be possible when we’re bringing the fight to them and them to us?”

“I don’t know, Chrys,”  I snapped sharply, but Chrysocolla didn’t flinch or anything.  I could almost tell by now when which of them was more in charge.  Fluorite was on the surface now, probably taking the brunt of the situation around her while comforting Dumortierite on the inside.  I felt that same bitterness again.  “If the fight comes to me, I’m...I’m useless.  I’m a scientist, not a warrior.  I’ll get broken or worse and then I’ll be useless to everybody.  But the same thing could happen to...to any of them.  That’s not the point.”

She tilted her head to the side, her long hair getting sand in it without her noticing.  “What is, then?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, closed my eyes, and let my upper body drop into the sand with a pleasant heavy noise.  I needed to listen to sounds.  Listen and calm down.  Yelling wouldn’t help.

“The point is...tch.  Look, this rebellion becoming all out war was inevitable, and I’ve known that since we joined.  All this changes is that I will be putting most of my efforts into healing Gems when they come back, because now they will be coming back from battle without a doubt.  But what bothers me is...”  I scratched at the front of my throat,  “...Rose.  I don’t know if she can handle it.”

“You think she’ll break under pressure?”

“The opposite,”  I shook my head,  “I think she’ll keep pushing past it, and there will be nothing left for her when it’s all over.”

Chrysocolla went quiet, but I could hear her shifting around next to me.  When I opened my eyes again and looked at her she was on her side facing me, one arm under her head, one curled around her stomach, and two reaching tentatively out for my hand.  I let her take it.  She needed it.  I did, too.

“I...”  I started, trying to smile even just a little for her sake,  “I will stay here, for her.  So that doesn’t happen.  She needs as much support from us as we need her to lead the way.  I want to help take care of our people, now more than ever.  You, too,”  I looked right into Chrysocolla’s eyes.  Her eyes were strange, flecked with blue and green alike, just like the gems on her chest and back.  In a way they were just like my own gem, but much darker in color.

_Just like me.  You’re scared, too, aren’t you?  Both of you.  All of you.  You look up to me and here I am, afraid of everything that could happen.  Does that make you even more scared?  What can I do...?_

I averted my eyes.  “If you want my help, of course.  You’ve gotten much stronger since you were made and fused.  You’re definitely stronger than me.  You’ll get through this, and...and I hope you don’t mind if the most I can do is help you if something goes wrong...”

Chrysocolla smiled just a little, a meek and mousy smile.  Dumortierite’s smile.  “Of course I don’t.  Who else will patch me up when I fuck up in a fight?”  Fluorite’s tact.  I scoffed and closed my eyes again and just let the sounds of water on sand and Chrysocolla’s fingers tracing on the folds of my clothing be all the picture I needed.  “Turquoise,”  she spoke in almost a whisper,  “I won’t break.  I’ll always be here for you.  We will always be here for you.”

There was a soft humming noise, a sound of shifting sand on my opposite side, and the two hands on my own became two separate pairs of different sizes.

“I promise,”  Fluorite and Dumortierite said in unison, before I heard the latter gasp and her hand raised to brush against my cheeks,  “T-Turquoise, you’re--”

“I know, Dumor,” I laughed and let her brush my tears off before I opened my eyes again.  They looked just the same as ever, except for those little pink diamonds on their hip and belt respectively.  Mine, comfortably on the front of my vest, matched their perfectly.  “I’m okay.  I love you two.  Don’t fuck up, okay?  Promise that, too.”

Fluorite sat up and beamed at Dumortierite and me, her eyes glittering with mischievous but honest delight.  “I swear!  Hell, I triple swear!”  Dumortierite giggled softly and laid back down in the sand with me on her stomach, her arms under her chin, and closed her eyes.

“I s-swear it, too, Turquoise...I love you, too.”

“Holy shit, is this the ocean?!  It’s enormous!”  Fluorite was on her feet and kicking at the waves, seeming to have forgotten the conversation at hand.  I couldn’t really blame her, it was a gorgeous sight, even if only a ways behind us there was still so much pain.

_I wish we could have had a better reason to come to the ocean, but I guess this will have to do._

Terrifying impending loss and destruction or heartbreaking victory at an immeasurable cost, I just didn’t care at all right there.  Not right now, this second.  If I thought about it every moment, I would shatter under the pressure.  Right now I had Dumortierite resting at my side and Fluorite giddily running after the waves.  This was no less important than the danger ahead.  

No, it was _more_ important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Bit shorter than I'd have liked it to be, but it's a big speech.
> 
> Drama coming 'round the bend.
> 
> UPDATE 10/3: Visiting friends this week, update next week!))


	13. Desperate Gem

Time seems like such an unimportant thing when you live forever.  I never really thought about it until this all started.  Eight-hundred and fifty-three years.  I wish I could be even more precise, but I didn’t think it would be as important as it is now.  Back at the Kindergarten where I thought of myself as little more than a scientist--a cog in a machine, forsaking my dreams for the grander, more important goals of the Homeworld--I had thought of this war as a passing thing.  Something that would die and fade into the corners of our history.  

Rose Quartz turned it into almost a thousand years of struggle.  In that time, so much of me has changed.  I can feel it, even if I don’t believe it.

But so much of me doesn’t feel different, at all.

I’m still a cog.

I still work towards larger, grander goals.

My own dreams, however, had changed.  Maybe it was because of that that I could stand being a part of something bigger than myself, rather than being bitterly resigned to it.  I still wanted to help Gems, and I still wanted to make life safer and happier for them.  Only now there were specifics.

Rose Quartz, I wanted to keep on a pedestal.  I wanted to keep her as the glowing beacon of hope for the rebellion...but I couldn’t.  My fears of seeing her break only became more vibrant and real with each passing battle, each loss of a Gem that even she couldn’t save.  She would return with colder and colder eyes every time.  More often than not she would return cradling Pearl’s gem in her hands and refusing to speak to anyone until her Pearl returned.  She was breaking.  Slowly, but definitely.

I stopped wanting to help her.

No, that’s not the right way of putting it.

I wanted her to stop.  The war was killing her.  Figuratively, for the most part, but it was.

As a scientist, I prided myself in knowing when to keep pushing a hypothesis and when to cut my loses.  The Kindergarten helped with that, in a much darker, horrible way.

I messed up this time.

I should have cut my loses after the speech on the beach.

There would not be a grand victory or even peace at the end of this war.  I didn’t need Garnet to tell me that, or Sapphire.  I could feel it.  Everybody, even Fluorite, could feel it.

So I did what I could.  I stopped wanting to see the end of the war, and started waiting for them to come home.  Dumortierite and Fluorite became my reason to stay, and I knew that I was their reason, too.  Whenever they left to join the fight, either fused or separated, I did little more than wait.

What if they didn’t come back?

What if only one of them came back?

What if there’s nothing for them to come back to?

* * *

“Fluorite, Dumortierite, will you fuse with me?”  I said quickly and as nonchalantly as I possibly could with my hands balled into little shaking fists on either side of me.  I could feel sweat on the back of my neck growing colder with the sea air, and it only got worse compared to the icy air from beyond the shore.  Fluorite looked up from the blue and green fire that she had started to stare at me with a completely blank expression.  Dumortierite dropped the stick she had been holding to poke the fire.

Fluorite, bless her, broke what felt like the eon of silence that passed between us.  “You’re serious?  Like, actually serious?”

I nodded, and took a seat in the sand close to the fire.

“ _With_ us?”  Dumortierite’s eyes were ridiculously wide as she spoke, barely loud enough to be heard over the pops and cracks, “But we...when we m-make up Chrysocolla, we go off to fight.  You always said th-that you didn’t want to fight...that you were just a--”

“A scientist.  I know, Dumor,” I dug my fingers into the sand to keep them from digging into my palms.

“So why the change of heart?”  Fluorite tilted her head to one side.  “Not that I think I mind.  It might be really nice being fused.  Wouldn’t it?”  She smiled a little and looked across the fire at Dumortierite, who nodded in response.  I thought for a moment I saw her cheeks turn black.   “But I want to know what you’re thinking, Turq.”

I pressed my lips together in thought.  What was the reasoning behind it?  I loved both Fluorite and Dumortierite so dearly, and I didn’t think that the fusion itself would be bad.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“I’m tired of waiting,” I started, already sounding breathless after only just starting to talk.  Great.  “Every time you two leave, I’m here playing patch-up to those that went before you, and I have to wonder if the next Gem I’m keeping alive will be you.  What will I do if that happens?  I...none of us want to be in the middle of this.  Do we?”  I opened my eyes again and dared to see their responses.  Fluorite stayed completely still.  Dumortierite looked down at her toes, eyes dark and sad.  “And we told each other we didn’t need to stay.  That all that’s keeping us here is each other.  But that’s a lie, isn’t it?”

Fluorite opened her mouth, and I shut her up with a sharp glare.

She let me continue.

“We know that we don’t have anywhere to go anymore.  We could stay here, or we could go, but we can’t go home.  You’ve never known Homeworld, but trust me when I say that it would be hell for you.  Not because...no, because of what you are, and what we’ve done, and who you like to be, you would hate it there.  If they even let us in to begin with, which I doubt they would.

“So we have to stay here.  And that means fighting.  And that means me watching you go and you seeing me stay behind and I never know whether or not I’ll ever see you again and...and...”  Tears started to well up in my eyes, and I let them fall without a care in the world.  Who cares if they were like drops of ice.  I didn’t.  I sure as hell didn’t.  “And I can’t do that any more.  I need to be with you, now more than ever.  I need to know that you two will be okay, or if not that I’ll be going with you.”

Dumortierite’s head snapped up at that, and I saw similar streaks of tears running down her face.  “Turquoise, don’t s-say things like that!”  she begged.  I saw Fluorite’s jaw clench.

“It’s what I feel,” I returned with just as much heaviness in my voice, “I can’t do this without you two.  I just can’t.  And I won’t let it happen if I can very well damn help it!”

It went quiet again.

The waves on the beach made beautiful, calming noises compared to the popping fire and cold, moaning wind that circled the mountain far away from us.  Every couple of breaths I heard my breathing hitch almost in time with Dumortierite’s, and Fluorite’s teeth were grinding, audibly, through everything else.

Dumortierite broke the mostly still silence with a long intake of breath, followed by a shaking exhale.  “That won’t d-do.”

I blinked some of the tears out of my eyes.

“What?”

“That just won’t do,” she repeated, and continued to try and steady her breathing.  “I...I won’t let us fuse if your reason for it...is that you want to die with us.”

My back stiffened, and the sand underneath my nails suddenly felt like needles.

Dumortierite wrapped her arms around her own torso and continued.  “Sapphire and Ruby.  They told me that fusion is precious.  No matter what Homeworld said...which, I don’t know wh-what Homeworld said, because like you said, we’ve never known it.  But they said you can’t fuse just out of fear.  That’s wh-why I can’t let you do that to us.”

I almost choked out another beg, but this time Fluorite stopped me with her gaze.  She stood up and moved around the fire to sit behind Dumortierite, almost entirely trapping Dumortierite against her chest with her longer limbs.  

_Please.  Please.  I can’t do this without you.  I love you, I need you.  You’re the world to me._

“...please,” I only managed to force, and my shoulders sagged,  “Please.  I...I can’t...I c-can’t...”

Fluorite shook her head.  “Turq, we know.  Really.  We love you, too.  But we can’t.  Not if it’s just because you’re afraid of losing us.  It doesn’t work like that.”

“Flo...Dumor...”

They looked at each other.  I saw it, there, the same way I saw Sapphire and Ruby looking at each other when they were watching Fluorite and Dumortierite fusing so long ago.  I hadn’t been able to read it then, and I still couldn’t read it now.  They were talking to each other somehow, someway that I couldn’t understand.  Only now I desperately wanted to.

I started to speak without thinking.

“I want to know how it feels.  I’ve never know how to.  I’ve told myself that I didn’t need to, that I was okay as long I knew the logic of it.  But I’m not.  I won’t be.  I’m not desperate, but I am afraid,” I leaned forward and stared at the sand, where the tears falling from my face made little darker circles, and kept going, “I love you.  I love you, Fluorite.  I love you, Dumortierite.  I want to fuse with you so I can help you.  So you can help me.  I want to be stronger and I want to protect you and I want to know how it feels to trust people so much like you two do.”  I brought my hands out of the sand and covered my face with them.  I didn’t want to see the blue-green light of the fire.  It was too bright.  “I can’t do this without you.  I can’t see this war ending without you.  I can’t imagine surviving it without you.  I did.  I thought I could before I thought about losing you.  It just didn’t occur to me.  I didn’t want to think about it.  Now that I have, I can’t.  I just can’t.  I love you too much.  Please.  Please.”

My throat felt raw, like I had been yelling the entire speech instead of speaking it quietly.  It hurt more than the fire being too bright for my eyes.  It hurt like my gem had been cracked--splintered.

It hurt like when Amber tried to take them away from me.  To harm innocents, to harm them.

And yet feeling it out of me felt better than keeping it in.

Between the three of us, there was dead silence.  I didn’t see them with my hands over my eyes, but it was unnerving not to be able to hear them, too.  They were right in front of me, so close to me, but without being able to hear or see or touch them I felt like they could be miles away.  Maybe they were.  I didn’t feel like anything had changed between us, and yet everything might have.  I didn’t know.

I couldn’t know.

_Please don’t leave me.  Please.  Please._

“Turquoise,” finally Fluorite spoke again, and she was still the same distance away as she was before.  But her voice was different.  Changed, but familiar. 

_Chrysocolla._

She sounded calm--eerily so, for her--but not in a disconnected, uncaring way.  More like she had figured something out, and everything was alright.  Funny how I couldn’t match the sentiment at all.  

“Turquoise," Chrysocolla repeated, speaking as gently as she could have, "We want you to fuse with us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Well that was a long one. And it took a while to get up. Innuendos. Hurh.
> 
> Sorry for the delay and weird scheduling. I'll get up more! 
> 
> T-minus X chapters til tragedy...))


	14. New Gem

I felt giddy.  No, “giddy” isn’t the right word for it.  Light?  Buoyant?  I felt like I was floating.  Everything was warm, soft, and blurring together in a mix of new sensations.  I could tell which way was which, but not what time it was or where I was exactly.  It felt good.  I felt good.

“You alright in there?”  my lips moved and the voice was mine, but not mine.  Me and not me.  I nodded.  I sighed in relief.  “Good.  Alright, this is going to be a bit...confusing for a little while, but let’s try to walk around.”

I moved myself onto my palms, feeling my twenty-five fingers dig slightly into the sand for the leverage to push me up.  Twenty-five fingers, five hands, two arms on each side, one...was that my ponytail?  My ponytail had a prehensile end shaped like a hand.  Weird.  I stood up on trembling legs but used my ponytail-arm to steady myself.

“This...is so strange,” I spoke, and this time it was me.

I snorted, and it wasn’t.  “Yeah, it takes some getting used to.  Liking the new limb, though.  Very cool.  I bet it’ll help with climbing.”

I chuckled softly, quietly, then started looking myself over properly.  My limbs were long and lanky, not too changed from Chrysocolla’s, each one with a deep blue glove.  My outfit was different, though, with a long white cape that reminded me of my lab coat and tight, black pants and a gray top underneath.  The cape slit up the center to reveal one gem, the tight-fitting top had a pocket in the chest to reveal another, and my ponytail-limb was high enough on my head to reveal the third.  Three Gems, all of them me.

I raised one of my hands to touch my face.  Three eyes, just like three Gems, in a triangle on my face.  I grinned.

“Wow.”

“I know, right?” I gave a sharp bark of laughter and stretched my five limbs up towards the sky, “Oooooh, I think we’re even taller than before!  This’ll make Garnet jealous!”

I shook my head, “We shouldn’t just go trouncing in like this, though.”

“You’re right,” I nodded, mock-solemnly, “We must prepare theme music.”

“Flo...” I said in a tone both teasing and vaguely threateningly, but then paused.  I was talking to Fluorite, but she was me and I was her.  And Dumortierite, too, was me.  

Who am I?

_I am Turquoise.  But I’m not.  I’m new.  I’m you.  Who am I?_

“...I have a name,” I whispered.  My limbs relaxed at my sides, ponytail coiling comfortably over my shoulders almost like a scarf.  With delicate care I touched at the three spots on my body where my Gems lay, feeling their shape.  They’d changed, just slightly, growing smoother compared to Fluorite, and more glass-like compared to mine.

Compared to Turquoise.

I smiled again, warmer this time, and spoke my name with confidence.  “Blue Topaz.”

I am Blue Topaz.

“Nice to meet me,” I snickered, breaking the serious air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Very short mid-week thing just to introduce Blue Topaz and prepare everything for the last few chapters.
> 
> T-minus X til tragedy.
> 
> See you soon~))

**Author's Note:**

> (( Hello~
> 
> So this is my first work for Steven Universe. And my first story here in general. So I'll be quick with my notes.  
> And they are as such:
> 
> ENJOY THE RIDE IT'S GONNA END BADLY!!
> 
> That is all. Tata~))


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